Meet you There
by sweden19
Summary: Zootopia has always been a city that has been promoted to mammals that believed in the mantra of anyone that can become anything; but for natives, that had often been more of an ironic statement than actual fact. But it doesn't mean that it is just merely words, as it always had a funny way of making believers out of anyone. Rated T for language, violence, suggestive themes.
1. Chapter 1

_**Hey, thanks for taking the time to read my new Zootopia fanfiction, Meet you There! Its actually been several years since I last created a fanfic, mostly because I've lost interest in writing casual stories since other things have replaced it, namely obsessing over a certain genre of pop music. But since I decided it would be fun to at least try a new story from scratch, I decided why not Zootopia; a movie that has plenty of potential scenarios with and without the main characters of the movie, what I like to consider a top-tier Disney movie that will be well remembered for years to come, and we all know that Disney is probably going to make a sequel and maybe even a TV show? But enough with the introductions for now; I'm not sure if I'm committed just yet to create a whole story, as it gets strenuous with the all of the commitments and creativity that comes with it, but I decided; why not? So hopefully you find this little piece of fanfic enjoyable, and I take constructive criticism to mind when deciding what to do next. Thanks! :)**_

 **October 20, 2006**

 _Rainforest District_

Zootopia was well regarded for its transportation systems; all systemically designed to accompany from the smallest of mammals; from the mouse pup, to a fully grown giraffe. However, there remained a large chunk of the population that preferred personal transport; whether it had been for convenience away from the sometimes overcrowding of public transport, to fulfilling their personal desires in the form of automotive enthusiasm. In the case of the driver of a compact blue SUV, he preferred the former, as carrying along two young snow leopard cubs along with him through large crowds made him very uncomfortable. He glanced at the rear-view mirror and smiled as the sight of his own two children, a boy and a girl, napping in their child seats, " _Thank the gods they're not in a bad mood today."_ he thought to himself, shuddering at the thought of either of the two cubs waking and begin their normal routine of wailing for their father's attention. The elder snow leopard was darting through the Rainforest District, trying to make it to their home before nightfall completely overtook them, he scanned the roads constantly and twitched at the sight of any danger that may be in their way; combined with the downpour that made the road slick, all conspired to make the driver very nervous, bordering on paranoia. After taking another glance at his cubs, he took a deep breath and forced himself to remain calm, " _Relax, Luther, just another mile and your there, safe and sound."_ He had his favorite soft jazz music playing on low volume, to both pacify his cubs and himself, a trait that he knew they all shared that he to his relief had discovered a few weeks ago. He had arrived at an intersection with a red light, easing on the brake pedal to prevent any skidding that could even remotely endanger his cubs' lives. Glancing at his wristwatch he cracked a small smile, " _Good, just under a hour before their bedtime, maybe we could watch some TV before bed."_ As soon as the light turned green, he gradually began to accelerate the SUV into the intersection; " _Almost there-"_ Suddenly he heard loud screeching, and before he could even turn his head to react to the source of the sound, a violent force of metal rammed into the side of the blue SUV, causing it to flip unto its side; Luther couldn't even begin to process the cause of the accident, as the side of the SUV continued to skid alongside the road; the leopard felt the entire movement of the automobile in slow motion, with only his seatbelt to attached to the car's seat. The only noise at first he could hear was the sound of metal and glass scraping and mashing against the asphalt below; after what seemed like an eternity, the SUV finally ended its inertia and laid still on its side at rest next to a curb. Luther's vision was impaired from the blunt force causing him to see only bright lights everywhere, and the sounds of the engine hissing from the damage it accumulated; breathing heavily, he felt wetness at the side of his body; and felt an intense pain piercing at his left arm, but all of those sensations were ignored by the first cohesive thought that ran into his thought process like a battering ram, " _The kids!"_ He could only barely turned his neck around, and to his horror saw his son bleeding profusely from his head, with absolutely no reaction or movement. " _No..."_ he couldn't turn his head anymore to check the condition on his daughter, but only heard a faint cry of pain emitting from her. Adrenaline flowed through Luther's body at the idea of his own offspring being injured or even dead, he struggled profusely to force his arm to unbuckle his seatbelt. "K-Kaden, Rena..." he weakly called out. He was nearing unconsciousness as blood continued to escape his body, he only made out faint yells of other mammals rushing towards the vehicle; a deep male voice was the clearest one, " _Sir! Are you alright?"_ Luther couldn't respond loudly enough for the voice to hear, only managing to croak out, "H-Help them...help..." he muttered out, Rena's cries grew louder as she gathered her own consciousness, causing the source of the voice to react quickly, " _We've got a cub with trauma, the other doesn't seem to be responding."_ Luther then heard the rear door that was Rena's side being forced open with a machine, then he heard Rena's seat being unbuckled and carried out of the vehicle, " _She needs medical attention, stat!"_ the voice called out. Soon Kaden's seat was removed and carried out as well, " _CPR! We need CPR! Subject not responding! I repeat-"_ Luther lost consciousness at that point, with his final thought being, " _K-Kaden..."_

 **May 3, 2016**

 _Downtown Zootopia_

Zootopia was under an unusually warm period of weather due to one of the machines destined for Sahara Square sending air directly to all sectors of the city, with even Tundra Town being under stress of heat, which was considered rare; only seeing the phenomenon of above average weather once every few years. And stuck in the rush hour traffic of downtown were two police officers in the middle of all of the stress that Zootopia was enduring at the moment, specifically one female rabbit and one male fox, both suffering under the intense heat piercing through the metal protection of the police cruiser. "Ugh! Nick, are you sure the A/C is at full blast?" the rabbit asked in despair, "Well Carrots, I could drive this thing into the lake at Tundra Town, would that be cold enough for you?" he quipped, even with the tenseness of the heat ever present. Judy scoffed, "You know what? It probably could, sweet cheese and crackers is it blazing, even Bunnyburrows wasn't this hot in the middle of summer!" Nick sighed, "Well hopefully the people at the weather station can fix that damn machine before all of us kill over." Nick swore that some of his fur on his back singed upon contact with the black leather seats, "I don't know about you Carrots, but I'm too beautiful to die from this stupid heat...why did you even suggest going to this way?" Judy looked at him undignified, "What? I told you that every way back to the station was packed! How am I supposed to find a way out of here? Aren't you the native anyways?" Nick held back a snarl, "You know what, forget about it, by the time we get back to the station we're probably going to be called into another task anyways, so there's no getting away from this heat, especially with Mr. Grumpy Buffalo Wings breathing down our backs." Judy released a small chuckle at his nickname, "Heh, I wonder if leaving Bogo out in this heat would cook him into buffalo wings?" Nick smirked, "He's already got the hot sauce in the form of his anger." Judy and Nick shared a short laugh; however it was interrupted by a call from Clawhauser, "Attention units in Downtown, we've got a call concerning public disturbance in the form of a conflict between two individuals at 4th and Jacobson, calling out for assistance." Nick seized the radio's speaker, "Unit 32, we've got it, Clawhauser." Judy smiled at the sight of Nick taking initiative, "Roger, thanks Nick, over." Nick shrugged at Judy, "Well, now we got an excuse to leave this mess behind." Judy nodded, "Thank the gods."

Nick and Judy were able to quickly arrive at the destination thanks to the use of the cruiser's siren, "Well, here we are...not too much of a spot is it?" Nick commented on the area; being fairly run down, the two officers saw the situation at hand, with what appeared to a snow leopard and a coyote in a tussle on a basketball court surrounded by a few interested mammals, they both quickly exit the vehicle, and approached the two suspects. As they walked to them as not to cause too much of a commotion, the snow leopard landed a quick punch at the coyote's muzzle, causing him to yip, and then growl in anger, "I'll get you, stupid cat!" The snow leopard snarled back, "Bring it, you overgrown pup!" Upon closer inspection the officers discovered that the leopard was female despite the way that she was dressed and her mannerisms suggesting more of a male persuasion, and was also rather young looking compared to the coyote, Judy guessed she couldn't be any older than 14 or 15. "Alright, alright! You two break it up!" Nick yelled out, the sparring two mammals turned quickly to the fox with panicked expressions, "Shit, its the popo!" The coyote yelled out, causing all of the mammals in the area to book it away from them. Judy sighed, "Really? In this heat? Also, popo?" Nick gave a chuckle, "Just another nickname for Zootopia's finest." Judy rolled her eyes, "Right, who you want to take?" Nick smirked, "You work better with larger mammals, I'll take the girl." Judy stuck out her tongue, "Is Nick scared of a coyote?" The fox held out his handcuffs, "Whatever, I guess you're faster anyways; better for you to chase the faster mammal." Judy nodded, "Right, first one to return back at the court gets a free meal from the loser!" Nick gave a false look of surprise, "Judy Hopps, betting on civilians? Ripping apart the ZPD's book of ethics one arrest at a time." He turned and began sprinting after the coyote, "You're on!" he yelled. Judy cracked her neck and broke into her own sprint, following the street that the snow leopard took off on, easily catching up to her in under a minute, partially due to her training, and also due to the fact that the snow leopard was still not at her peak of physical performance. Judy maintained her sights in almost a predatory sense on the young leopard watching the suspect stumble upon the other mammals in her way trying not to trip under herself, but wasn't able to shake off the rabbit officer, and gradually lost her breath after dashing for several minutes. Soon the pain of fatigue overtook her legs and heart forcing her to slow down to a jog, feeling the doe quickly approaching she changed strategies from trying to outrun her to outsmarting and turned into the park near her, feeling that maybe she could lose the officer in the trees, she found thick brushes and promptly hid behind them. Finally coming to a stop she took several deep breathes, trying to get rid of the pain in her chest in order to run off to a safe zone away from the police and hopefully lose their interest in her. Judy did temporarily lost her in the park, to her annoyance, and the heat was certainly not helping either with her predicament. "Come on now, you really think can outrun an officer, I'll go easier on you since you're young okay?" She said trying to coax the snow leopard out of her hiding spot. The doe walked down a path trying to find any sign of the leopard, but to her frustration couldn't find any sign of her. "You do realize that we have wolves on our force? They don't need much more than a small sample of fur to track you down!" she yelled out hoping that it would discourage the suspect. Her sharp rabbit hearing caught a brief rustle from a shrub nearby and smiled, "I'm sure that your parents wouldn't appreciate hearing that their daughter ran from the law, so come out now, I won't bite! I promise!" She heard a sigh and tensed herself for anything that could happen, however to her surprise the leopard simply stood up looking defeated and lifted her arms up, "Okay, you win." she simply stated with a hint of sadness. The doe took note of her clothes, consisting of a black baseball cap, with red and blue basketball shirt and shorts. Judy gave her a soft smile, "I'm sorry, but you know how its got to be." She held out a pair of handcuffs, and cautiously walked up to her, prepared for any possible resistance from the taller leopard. However to her relief the suspect compiled without any resistance, and soon was being walked by the rabbit officer in shame. "So, what's your name?" Judy asked trying to make friendly small talk, the leopard looked away, "I have my rights, I'm not answering your questions, the end." The officer was a little curious at that statement and was tempted to prod her further with more questions but decided that she went through enough for the day and walked the entire way in silence. They eventually made their way back to the court, only to be met with a smug grinning fox and a rather angry looking coyote cuffed to a nearby pole. Judy tilted her head curiously, "Err...what exactly just happened?" Nick's grin grew smugger, "He thought that could overpower me, but he's not much of a fighter. Well, honestly I should've expected that since your own suspect was able to punch him in the face anyways." He shifted his gaze to the young leopard and kept his grin, "You seem to have got yourself an easy one this time, Carrots." He winked, "By the way, I'm feeling a sundae today." Judy groaned remembering the bet, "Okay, you win. Now let's get these two into the precinct." Leaving the leopardess to nervously await her fate to these two rather strange police officers.

 _ **Okay, that's it for today, hope you enjoyed this little chapter, and as I said before, any constructive criticism is welcomed.**_

 _ **Much Love to ya! :)**_


	2. Chapter 2

**_Alright, here comes another chapter; like before hope you enjoy and leave any comments on the story!_**

 _Precinct 1_

The car ride to the station was mostly uneventful, and proved to be even longer than either of the officers expected to be; much to the discomfort of the leopardess who was already adjusted to the comparably cooler temperatures of her resident sector. Both Nick but also especially Judy tried to initiate a conversation with the younger teen in the back seat, however they both stopped seeing her wallowing in a mix of nervousness and embarrassment.

As they entered the main lobby of the building they were greeted by the overweight cheetah manning the front desk of the lobby. "Hey Judy and Nick! Isn't it a beautiful day today?" he said rather absentmindedly. Nick was torn between telling off the cheetah for his utter ignorance of the intense heat outside, or responding with a friendly joke; "Well, all I can say is that I hope this heat doesn't leave a certain chief of police sauteing into a plate of hot wings." Judy and the leopardess both groaned at the repeat of that particular joke, "Cut it out Nick, I think being arrested is enough punishment for this poor young lady." Nick grinned at both of them, "Hey, in interrogation I'm known as the 'Joker', and not in a good way." His partner scoffed, "All your good for is making our suspects want to puke in their mouths." The fox displayed a look of hurt, "Why I never! My mother had always said that I should pursue stand-up comedy." The teen was watching the entire ordeal with some amusement at their eccentric relationship but chose to remain quiet in order to not potentially upset either of them. Judy was surprised and stared at him with wide eyes, "Wait, really?" Nick chuckled, "Course not, I like to think my mother would banish me out of the city before I could do anything like that." He noticed the leopardess staring at them like they were two crazy mammals arguing over a trivial topic, he then smirked "How about you? Would your parents agree with that particular career?" She looked away with an annoyed look, "Err...n-no." Judy sighed, "Nick, stop before I kick you across the building to stop yourself." The fox shrugged, "Your loss."

Judy dropped off the teen at a jail cell, upon opening the door she walked her to the seat and remove the handcuffs from her paws, "Now I need some personal information to be able to call your parents. Can you please tell me your name?" she said quietly to elicit any stares from other cellmates in the room, "Rena. Rena Collins." Judy nodded and took a notepad; speedily writing down the details of the teen, "Age?" The rabbit saw some brief squirming and heard her gulp, "14." Rena replied still looking away from Judy's glance, "Residence?" Another sigh from the teen, "304 Mariposa Road, Rainforest District." The rabbit was interested on how such a young person was so far from home, "So, how did you get here then?" Rena looked at her with an apologetic expression, "I had a friend drive me here, but he had to do something else so he left a little before you guys came." Judy gave a small smile, "And you don't want to reveal his information, right?" Rena was a little surprised at that statement but nodded, "Y-Yeah." Judy closed the notepad's cover and held out her paw, "Thanks for cooperating!" Rena held out her own comparatively large paw and gently shook the doe's, "You're welcome?" The leopardess had no idea what to expect from the first rabbit in the ZPD force; her biggest guess would have been a much tougher, stricter sort of bunny to compensate for their diminutive size, but it turned out that this particular officer was as sweet as ice cream. In contrast, her own friends called her a bit of a hot-headed goofball when she was in a good mood, but with the advent of today's events, she was hardly motivated to even smile.

The rabbit dashed from the cell to her desk, and woke up her computer; "Now let's see, Rena Collins." She typed down all of the information given to her, and was able to get a match, "Here we go...hmm, that's interesting, no criminal record, just shoplifting from last year at the Rainforest Mall." The picture that came up revealed a slightly younger looking Rena who was giving a small smile with longer head-fur and more feminine looking clothes, "Let's see...only has a father, deceased mother, and brother? Poor girl, probably has been through a lot." She found the phone number that was connected to Rena's father, she dialed it on using the phone on her desk, after a couple of rings it was picked up by a sleepy sounding male voice, "H-Hello?" Judy cleared her throat and switched to a professional tone, "Hello, is this Luther Collins?" she asked, "Yes, might I ask who's this?" Judy took a brief breather, "This is Officer Judy Hopps of the ZPD, I'm here to report about your daughter, Rena Collins." She heard panicked tousling in the background, "R-Rena? What happened- Is she okay?" Judy was familiar with the sound of a father's concern for their daughter, especially considering she was the only family member left. "She is fine, however she is under arrest for an altercation that took place earlier today, and we are still determining what has exactly happened at the scene." The rabbit heard some deep breathing, "O-Okay...can I talk to her?" Judy sighed, "You need to pick up her at the station, after signing some forms of course." She then heard a huff, "Got it, I'll be there." he replied.

Rena had been relegated to the jail cell for a few hours now and can feel it already becoming evening; during that time she mostly just laid down on the seat pondering about what her father's reaction was going to be, as he became both much more protective and strict recently, especially as she was quickly approaching adulthood. She never thought much of herself, or what her relationship with her father was, she felt mostly like he was another bothersome adult figure trying to restrict her freedoms and was no good at providing feedback into what life goals she could pursue beyond graduating high school. She also knew that ever since her brother passed away 10 years ago, she was the only source of happiness and positivity for her father, and was under pressure to not become a screw-up or even just another dead child. A loud clank from the distance signaled that arrival of her father, and she gulped not knowing what she had gotten herself into. "Rena! Where are you?" His voice gave hints of panic and almost desperation, "I'm here, dad." The elder leopard dashed to her cell with tears and anger on his face, "Miss...you are in so much trouble!" Rena looked away into nothing in particular, "I-I know." Nick was standing next to him, getting the appropriate key for the cell, "She's all yours, try to make sure she doesn't end up back here okay?" Luther gave a brief apologetic glance towards the smaller fox, "I know, thank you, Officer Wilde." Nick could see that the leopard had no misgivings to himself, and gave an assuring smirk, "Your very welcome, you'll be pleased to hear that our guest has been cooperating with the entire process, so for now we'll let her off with a warning." he said quite formally, which struck Rena as somewhat out of character for the otherwise smart talking vulpine. Rena was handed back her phone by Nick, but was intercepted by Luther, "I'll take that! No phone for a week, missy!" Rena gasped, "Dad! No! I need that to uh..." she quickly stopped her protest, to the suspicion of her father, "Need it for what?" His question was answered by a vibration on her phone, staring at the screen he saw an unfamiliar name, and upon seeing it was a male's name he glared at his daughter, "So, care to tell me who this Martin is?" Rena blushed and covered her face, "It's no one important, just a friend!" Nick was having some fun at this display of father daughter conflict, "I can always search this Martin, since its on her phone." Both leopards stared at him bewildered, "Really?" They both replied, Nick nodded, "Course, but thanks to a certain writ of rights, I can't legally do that." Rena gave a sigh of relief and attempted again to retrieve her phone, but Luther turned his body away, "Nope. Can't get it that easily, but..." his expression mirrored that of Nick's signature smirk, "Tell who Martin is and I might reconsider." The teen gave a cry of despair and sulked, "I can't do that! Fine, keep my damn phone." Luther rolled his eyes, "Language." Nick gestured to the lobby, "Come on, I'm sure spending 3 hours down here would drive any teen crazy."

The three mammals made their way up to the lobby and were met with Judy and Clawhauser chatting and chuckling over silly rumors concerning officers in the building. "Hola amiga, ready to head off for the day?" he asked Judy, she happily nod, "Yep, its been pretty darn hot the entire day, but luckily the machine was fixed an hour or so ago, and its already starting to cool down in Zootopia." Clawhauser saw the two leopards standing near them and gave a friendly smile, "You must be Luther, I just need you to sign here and your daughter's home free." He handed the elder leopard the appropriate forms, and he began filling them out. After finishing them and handing them back to the cheetah, Judy gave a friendly wave towards them, "Have a good night!" she said, Luther gave a nervous chuckle, "Uh...you too. Rena! Say good night to them!" Rena sighed, "Good night, I guess." she said slowly walking out of the lobby. However as she neared her exit, one of the wolf officers walked past her, and for a brief span of time, she took a glance at him and her eyes were open, mouthing an obscenity, before scurrying off to her father's car. Nick noticed her reaction to the wolf officer and chuckled under his breath, "Someone caught her attention." Judy was a little disheartened at the sight of the father looking disappointed at her attitude, "I'm really sorry, its just..." His head hung down, "She hasn't been like her normal self since last year." Nick tilted his head in curiosity, "What happened last year?" The rabbit's ears shot up remembering her profile, "Shoplifting, right?" Luther took a thoughtful second and sadly nodded, "Yep, tried to steal herself a video game that came out. She asked me for it, but I said no, because it wasn't for cubs." Clawhauser deflated a bit, "Aww...maybe she needs more time with her daddy?" Nick nodded in agreement, "He's right, the best way for a family to function is some outing time." Luther looked at them with interest, "Really? Rena and I haven't really connected in a while." Judy was very familiar with family time, considering the countless siblings that resided at her hometown, "I know! How about a picnic?" The elder leopard developed a smile, "You're right! Rena loves food, and she likes being outside, maybe this wouldn't be a bad idea. Your pretty smart for a bunny." Nick and Clawhauser both grimaced at his brief spout of specism, and Judy's ears drooped a little, "Err...what do you mean- nevermind, just have a good time." Luther nodded, "Thanks a lot, I'll try." he replied as he followed his daughter out of the lobby. Nick turned to Judy, "Poor guy, another case of father and his teenage child going through a disconnect, you really think that picnic idea will work?" he asked the smaller doe, she shrugged, "I don't know, I mean my family and I go out on picnics all the time. But in this case its me and my hundreds of siblings, so a picnic with just a father and his daughter will probably be a different beast." Nick gave a sarcastic chuckle, "Just hope this picnic doesn't end up putting both of them back in the cell." he remarked, Judy only huffed, "Doubtful fox." Nick smiled, "Dumb bunny."


	3. Chapter 3

**_Lucky you, another chapter! Been busy watching dramas and watching videos on YouTube. Err...doesn't mean I'm that lazy! Anyways, please enjoy this snack sized bit of the story._**

 _Outskirts of Downtown Zootopia, Entering Rainforest District_

In a normal road trip the dynamic would be Luther trying to create a conservation with his daughter with any old topic, only to be ignored with her attention focused at her phone; whether it was texting her friends or just listening to music while watching the city pass by. However this time, without the protection of her headphones, and the current mood of just being from jail; Luther was tightly gripping the steering wheel in silence, which unnerved the younger leopard to no end. "D-Dad...I'm sorry, the guy I fought was a total douchebag, and-" Luther smacked the steering wheel with enough force to frighten the leopardess back from her apology. "Don't want to hear it, I'm telling you now not to piss me off any further, _got it?"_ He seethed. Rena wasn't very familiar to this side of her father, and it made her even more guilty about her actions. "Okay." Luther sighed, "Now, two things; firstly...who's Martin?" Rena gulped knowing that this particular topic was sooner or later going to pop up, "A friend, just a friend." The elder leopard didn't buy it, "Didn't I tell you not to piss me off any further?" She bit her lip and tensed up trying to muster the courage up to tell her father the truth. Every ounce of her body was trying to resist her brain from spilling out the contents; but she couldn't bear the thought of pushing her father even further down the road of anger. "Fine! He's my boyfriend okay, and-" Luther noted her pause at the end, "And what?" Rena gripped her seat belt and took a deep breath, "He's not a leopard." If it weren't for the fact that they were on the freeway he would have instantly slammed on the brakes, "What? Not a leopard?" Rena blushed, "No, he's not. And you know what dad? I don't care about your opinion about interspecies relationships. I love him for what he is, and that's that." Luther was conflicted between the fact that his own daughter was not just dating someone, but one of a different species. "Rena. Tell me, are you sure about this?" She tilted her head in confusion and nodded, "Course. Why not?" He kept his eyes on the road, "Two things, is he a feline; and is he even a predator?" Rena gritted her teeth, "No, and no. And I'm not telling you what he is." Luther was tempted to interrogate her further, but decided against it as he had to concentrate on his driving. "We'll finish this at home then, don't think this is over, missy."

 _Downtown_

After finishing their shift for the day, and with a snide reminder by the fox they arrived at a nearby ice cream shop located close to the police station. "Thanks for buying the ice cream Judy, or rather, Judy's suspect." The rabbit groaned, "You already said yourself at the beginning that I was going to handle the fast one, how was I supposed to get her so quickly?" Nick shrugged while gathering a spoonful of blueberry flavored sundae, "Should have been quicker to decide, Carrots." He took a quick bite of the dish and closed his eyes to study the flavor more closely, "Mmm...this place is great, well worth the price." Further gloating to the smaller officer about his winning bet. Judy took a bite of her carrot flavored ice cream scoop, "Well, at least my choice for ice cream shop turned out to be great." As they dug further into their dishes Nick had a epiphany, "Hey Carrots." Judy was busy taking another bite of her ice cream, "W...What?" she responded mouth full, "That snow leopard...err, Luther! Seemed a little stressed hasn't he?" The smaller rabbit shrugged, "Comes with the territory of having children I guess." The red fox nodded, "Yeah, but he was really...uh what's the word, you know..." His partner was confused, "Distressed? Disheveled?" Nick waved his spoon with a nod, "Yep! That one. I wonder if that picnic thing would actually work; I mean my mom and I used to..." He then drifted out in thought, only to hear clapping, "Hello? Earth to Fox!" Judy called out, making him snap back into focus, "Huh? Oh sorry." The fox felt a small pang of guilt for making the bunny lost to an admittedly lopsided bet; he sighed, "Err...Carrots?" The doe looked up at him with intrigue at his tone, "Yeah?" Nick scratched the back of his neck, "Sorry for the whole bet thing." Judy was surprised at the unexpected apology but gave a warm smile in response, "It's okay Nick, I forgive you." Nick responded with a sly smirk in return, "Thanks for removing the overwhelming guilt from my consciousness." Judy chuckled while taking another bite of her ice cream, "Emotional fox."

Finishing what was basically dinner they left the ice cream shop, "Hmm...the heat has gone down much faster than I thought it would." Nick commented, Judy nodded, "What a relief, though I was going to become bunny stew at the end of the day." The fox smirked, "I'm sure with all of the police training, you would be 100% tender meat." Judy shrugged off the predator talk, "I'm sure fox jerky would placate most predator needs for meat." Her partner crossed his arms, "Really Carrots? You would think any predator would eat their own kind?" Judy's ears perked up, "Do they?" Nick acted serious with a glare for a second, "As a matter of fact...nope." He finished with a dismissive paw wave, "I always enjoyed your look whenever something shocked you, always so emotional." Judy rolled her eyes, "Whatever, anyways, you doing anything this weekend?" Nick tapped his muzzle thoughtfully, "Short of committing multiple acts of felonies and misdemeanors; probably just vegging out on the couch watching cooking shows or something." The doe opened her eyes at the remark, "You cook?" Nick grinned, "Better than you, misses I burned my carrots in the microwave." Judy punched his ribs playfully, "Hey! I live in what is basically an microapartment, give me a break!" Nick chuckled, "Whatever...guess I'll see you later Carrots." He said before turning around and began walking off, Judy returned the chuckle, "You too, Slick."

 _Collins Residence_

It was rapidly approaching nightfall as the car carrying the inhabitants of the house they both lived in pulled up. The house was only one story, and was dark blue in appearance; it was the house that Luther purchased for himself and his newly wed wife many years ago. Even in the middle of the day, the thick rainforest covered much of the sky, leaving it relatively dark even in summer; but also allowed it to stay cooler during summer months. They both sat in the car in silence, as Luther killed the car's engine he sighed, "Rena. You need to tell me who this Martin is." He calmed himself down during the duration of the road trip, the younger leopardess stared at the house, "He's...a deer." Luther stared at the roof of his car, "A deer." The image of a herbivore soft prey for a boyfriend miffed him, "And what is wrong with a leopard, hell; any big cat?" Rena groaned, "Nothing, I just-" She opened the car door, "He's a better fit, okay? I'll leave it at that." She slammed the door shut and made her way up the short stairs and sat on the wooden porch right next to the front door of the house. Luther felt a vibration in his left trouser pocket, realizing it was his daughter's phone, it read, " _Did something happened? Are we still going to see that new Paw Wars movie?"_ The elder leopard held back a growl and shoved the phone back into his pocket, " _A deer...what's next?"_

Luther eventually got out of his car and walked up to the front door, "Come on, I'm making leftover meatloaf for dinner." he said while unlocking the door, Rena rolled her eyes, "Whatever, I'll be in there." Her father looked at her, "Now, Rena." The leopardess got up and went inside with her father. The house inside was messy, with old clothes and objects thrown around the living room and attached kitchen without care. A symptom of the fact that both Luther and Rena had no motivation to clean their house; especially for Luther since he lost one of his cubs a decade ago. Rena rarely ate with her father in the kitchen table, mostly choosing to eat in the living room while watching TV, or in her room while she was playing video games or hanging out on her phone with her friends. But with the recent events, Rena wasn't able to break free from her father's watchful gaze. He set down a plate in front of her, "Here, it's the only thing I'm making for the rest of the week." His daughter sighed and grabbed her fork, "Dad...I know we don't have much money, but a bug meatloaf gets old after two days." Luther glared and removed her cap that was covering her eyes from his sight, "No hats at the table." Rena tensed up a bit in annoyance but decided it wasn't worth further angering her dad, "Fine." The TV was left on in the background, giving the audio of an old sitcom. "Dad. Are you mad at me?" Luther looked up from his plate, "No, just very disappointed." She knew what he meant. Luther bit his lip and went for Judy's idea, "Rena." She looked back up, "What?" He nervously twiddled his thumbs, "Uh...what do you say if we had a...picnic?" Rena was confused at the change of the conservation's pace, "A picnic?" she asked confused. He nodded, "Y-Yeah..." The leopardess tilted her head, "Dad...we haven't had a picnic in like, 3 years." Luther gave a small smile, "I know. But I feel that it would be the best way for us to...you know, reconnect?" Rena groaned, "If this is more punishment for what I did, I already said I'm sorry!" Luther shook his head, "Its not a punishment. Its normal family time." He laid a paw on her shoulder, "I know that this is from a long time ago, but do you remember the picnic we had at the park downtown?" Rena tried to retrieve that particular moment and faintly remembered some aspects, "I guess...wasn't this when Kaden was still alive?" Luther grimly nodded, "It was the week before the accident." She swore she could vaguely remembering playfighting with her sibling, because of the pain from a scratch she received. "Did I fight with Kaden?" Luther smiled happily, "You did, and won." he said reminiscing her victorious attitude the whole day after. She smiled mischievously, "If he was still here, imagine the kinds of fights we would have right dad-" Suddenly his eyes were watering up, "D-Dad?" Luther snapped back into focus and wiped the tears, "It's nothing." He got up from his chair and collected both plates, "We'll have our picnic next weekend, when I don't have work." Rena nodded, "Okay." She got up to go back to her room, " _Is he still crying?_ _"_

 _ **:) :) :) :) :) :)**_


	4. Chapter 4

**_Here comes another one ;)_**

Rena was pretty mad that her father took away her phone; however she wasn't one to let her phone be separated from her for more than several minutes. So she simply waited until nightfall, when her father was done watching TV downstairs and went to his own room. She heard the door to his room close shut and got up from her bed, " _I hope I didn't screw up anything with Martin for being away too long."_ She thought nervously as she as silently as she could walk towards the door; pressing her ear against the door she heard her father's voice as though he was talking to someone, " _Yeah...she was at the cell...I know, I didn't think anything would happen today, but I guess I'm not lucky enough for that."_ Rena was wondering who it could possibly be on the phone, she then heard him chuckle, " _Yep, my life's screwed up in many ways, but I also count my blessings; considering you know how my daughter get's into trouble."_ The leopardess scratched her head, " _Is it one of dad's friends? He doesn't normally talk like that_." She continued to eavesdrop on his conversation, " _I love her, but she's really killing me inside with worry; what if she doesn't make it home one day, what if-"_ There was silence for a few seconds, but with the other voice softly talking back to him; after careful deliberation she decided judging by the fairly high pitched voice it was female. With her tail swishing in interest she tried to think back, " _Dad's never brought another woman home...did he even date anyone after Mom died?"_ She never really considered a possibility that her father may want 'other' company, but she didn't want to judge him considering she herself was dating someone. " _So, err...it may be a stretch, but are you free tomorrow?"_ Rena's eyes opened up a little, " _Is he asking someone out?"_ She then heard him laugh a bit, " _I got nothing else to do too- so uh...there's a sushi restaurant."_ The leopardess decided she had enough conservation between Luther and the mystery lady on the other side, and went back in her room to wait a bit for her dad to go to sleep.

In her room, it was just like the kitchen; full of mess on the floor and on her bed contributed by her laziness, befitting of stereotypes for certain felines. She did have a laptop that was given to her a few years for a birthday, much to her surprise that she was even given one. And decided to scroll through to Furbook to catch up on what her online friends are doing. One in particular that caught her attention was a friend that went with her to Moosevelt High School, a brown and white ferret named Janice; she was partaking in tennis with her mother, who a tennis coach for a local community center. " _Mom's making me do tennis again...omg, want to die so bad."_ She typed on the chatbox, she smiled and responded, " _Is it really that bad? Sounds like fun."_ After a minute the ferret responded back, " _Not with my mom. She's trying to kill me with these stupid lessons. So hungry :("_ Rena had to suppress a chuckle, " _Get her to take you somewhere to eat...oh bring me something :)"_ she typed. " _Gonna try."_ Rena enjoyed spending time with Janice; they've met a couple of months ago at a basketball club, where she sitting at the bleachers waiting for her brother to finish a round. However Rena was in the other team, and thoroughly humiliated the male ferret with crossing him over on the court causing him to trip and fall right on his butt, and made a three-pointer to pour salt into his ego's wound. Janice witnessed the entire chain of events and went directly for the snow leopardess right after the match, "Wow, you just made my brother look like complete trash." Rena grinned, "Well...he was." Janice chuckled, "He's such a turd sometimes, glad someone put him in his place." The ferret got a bit closer, "That was some quick moves you got there." Rena didn't notice Janice's intentions and stood tall proudly, "Well, all those years on the court has to count for something." Janice winked, "Maybe you can show me some?" Rena was confused at her choice of words, "Err...show you some basketball tricks?" Janice chuckled again, "No silly, like you know..." Rena took a while but it then hit her like a hammer, "Oh...Oh! I'm not a lesbian!" Janice froze, "A lesbian, aren't you a guy?" Rena's confused expression gradually turned into both a horrified and humored one, "What? No! I'm a chick!" Janice's eyes widened in horror and she blushed, "Oh crap! I'm sorry, I just thought with the clothes, the hair..." Rena patted her headfur and sighed, "Nope, not a guy, I just feel...comfortable dressed like this you know?" Janice was relieved that she didn't anger the larger leopardess, "Like a tomboy?" Rena nodded, "If that's what it's called." Despite the very awkward beginning; they both hit it off pretty well after that point, as they both had an affinity for sports, albeit tennis for Janice, and basketball for Rena. She looked at the time on the laptop's screen and saw it has been half an hour, " _That should be plenty of time."_ She opened the door and like earlier silently padded her way down the hallway to Luther's room. Pressing her ear against the door she smiled hearing the familiar snoring, " _Perfect."_ She knew that her father kept the door unlocked and slowly turned the knob, and upon opening the door she spotted her father snoring with the phone laying on the dresser across from him, " _Hello, my sweet."_ She thanked the fact that felines had the ability to walk silently; something that all felines learn at a certain age to get around their parents, like today. She stared diligently at her father while slowly grasping for her phone; her heart was already beating fairly quickly, knowing that if she accidentally woke up the elder leopard, just taking her phone away would have been cheap change compared to what he would do otherwise. She resisted a glance at her phone once she retrieved it and slowly went back outside the room, after successfully closing the door. She sighed in relief, " _Thought I was going to pee myself."_ She clicked the power button and saw several messages from Martin, the last one was just sent recently, and it caught her attention, " _Are you mad at me? I'm sorry :("_ Rena gripped the phone tightly, and began typing back, " _Sorry, my dad took my phone away, but I was able to get it back."_ It took just half a minute for him to respond, " _Cool, anyways...still want to see the movie with me?"_ Rena smiled, " _Yep. Monday after school."_

 _Downtown_

Nick was busy prepping himself for bed; as was his usual routine to take a shower right before hitting the sack, and maybe a late night meal to help lull him into drowsiness and then sleep. But in the shower stall he was deep in thought as the warm, bordering on hot water showered over his fur, " _I wonder if Judy's busy with anything next weekend; I wonder if she would go with me to the festival."_ Nick was debating on whether it would be a good idea to be the rabbit along to the International festival, where many cultures came from around the world to be hosted in the fitting cosmopolitan Zootopia. However, Nick was at least in his deepest, hardest to reach segment of his conscious; developing conflicted feelings for the doe. And it was beginning to subtly mess with his processing of how their relationship worked, " _Hopefully she isn't the typical, 'I must finish all these reports before I can do anything else'."_ After finishing his shower, and shaking himself loose of most of the water that was clinging to his fur, and padding down the rest with a towel. He wiped the mirror of the fog covering and smiled at his own reflection, "My...what big muscles you have there, Nicky." He gave himself a short moment to flex out his newly developed arm and chest muscles; which naturally occurred after months of police training and work. "What vixen wouldn't resist this? Or..." He briefly visualized grey fur and shook his head, "Huh? Weird." He shrugged and exited the bathroom, after which he slid on some boxers but plopping himself into bed. He snuggled into his warm, soft bed and stretched out his upper body, while popping a few joints for good measure. He then glanced at his phone for some quick checking on his social media, and a message from Judy was on his phone, " _Wish you were here."_ Nick was surprised, and continued reading, " _I burned the dang carrots again. Wish I had a personal chef cook for me :("_ The fox laughed for a second, with the image of a sad Judy mourning the loss of her precious carrots running through his head, "Oh Carrots, you do make my day sometimes, I swear." He quickly typed a response before setting his phone on the table near the bed and switched off the lamp before going to sleep.

Judy was also preparing for bed, she just finished the last of the required reports for her job, and decided to just stick with a granola bar for dinner, feeling that she will make it up with some breakfast before going back to work later. As she settled into bed, her phone vibrated indicating a message; with a quick glance at her screen revealed the typical snarky attitude that the fox often showed, " _Better be careful, otherwise its not just the vegetable that's going to be burned. You would probably make great rabbit barbecue ;)_ " Judy giggled, however her mind also strayed a bit which caused her to interpret it differently then what was meant to happen, "You would try to eat me, Slick Nick _."_ Judy did appreciated the fox's company, especially now as a fellow police officer and partner; even in the face of conflicting attitudes between them, and the occasional troubles that they both land themselves into due mostly to past connections that Nick held during his own little heists. But Judy wouldn't have it either way, and hoped that this dynamic duo thing that they both had going on would last hopefully for years to come. But as time passed, the reality of settling into Zootopian life has definitely impacted the officer in ways that Bunnyburrows would never have, like the previous notion that she would inevitably have to find a suitable buck and eventually start another large rabbit family, and has introduced the urban rabbit life, which focused their energy much less on trying to find a mate, and all of the 'activities' that came with it and more on pursuing their own dreams that rural life simply wouldn't accommodate. As the rabbit began to doze off a last thought about the snow leopard she apprehended earlier found its way into her conscious, " _I hope that her and her father at least tries to get along with my idea."_

 _ **I got a bit of a fuzzy, warm feeling from completing another chapter in this story. Hopefully this can lead to more motivation for other things besides this little project as well :) Thanks for reading, and leave a review or comment!**_


	5. Chapter 5

**_What's up guys, its the year two thousand and seventeen! Yep...I'm probably going to look back on this story about five years from now and get caught up in nostalgia or some other weird emotion. (Starting to feel old...) But anyways, I've decided to push the story's boundaries a bit, hopefully to set some more development into the context of this story. So here comes another one!_**

 **July 3, 2000**

 _Oso del Sol, Clawifornia_

"Now, I'm not saying that you're wrong on this; but I'm sure pissing off Ol' Jenkins isn't a good idea." said a young snow leopard adult, "Psshh...that old lynx already pissed me off, after telling me to fuck off from his store." replied a male squirrel with dark brown fur and black stripes. "Melvin, he already said that if he spotted you near his property, he was going to call the police!" The squirrel's tail twitched, and he waved his paw dismissively, "Shit. I doubt he'll do anyways after I do this..." He removed lighter and some matches, with a mischievous grin on his face he waved them in front of the now horrified snow leopard, "What the hell are you going to do now!" Melvin snickered, "What do think Luther? This old cat got's some nice merchandise at the back of his store. And you know how alcohol is flammable." Luther started to internally panic as the squirrel began walking towards the building, "Mel! Don't do this, he'll know it was you, and the police will clamp down on you!" Melvin scoffed at the leopard's warning, "Didn't know you were such a _pussy_!" Luther growled, "I'm serious Melvin, you've done some dumb shit before. But this is definitely not you!" The squirrel lit one of the matches, "You're right, but I'm afraid-" he prepared himself to lunge the match at the base of the building but was immediately tackled down into the ground by the leopard, "What the hell Luther, I was going to...urk!" Luther choke slammed him down to the dirt, "Your so stupid! I can't believe you would actually burn an old mammal's business down!" The squirrel clawed at the leopard's sensitive nose causing him to cry out in pain, forcing himself off of the squirrel and cover his now bleeding nose with his paws. "Screw you, I see that the whole 'felines are untrustworthy' thing is true after all; can't be even a true friend." Luther seethed in pain and rage, and roared as he grabbed Melvin by his shirt and tossed him without much effort into a nearby tree. He then grabbed him by the collar and began to choke him, with the squirrel lashing out with his claws to no avail, "Urgh...fuck you, you overgrown cat!" Luther only responded by continuing to cut off his friend's air supply; and ignored the sounds of other mammals in the background, "Stop! Remove yourself from the squirrel, now!" All of a sudden, he felt what seemed like a sharp needle puncture his bare arms, "Ah!" he dropped the squirrel and quickly removed the dart, "What the..." he then felt all parts of body disobey his commands and instantly blacked out.

 _Collins Residence_

Luther woke up feeling groggy, he rubbed his face trying to pull himself from the clutches of drowsiness and stretched his entire upper body; upon looking at his phone it was still fairly early in the morning, so he had a little time for himself, " _Might as well take a walk."_ He decided that since the weather outside seemed to be agreeable, it would be beneficial for the aging leopard to work out his bones to keep him sprightly. He got out of his bed, and brought out a plain white t-shirt to cover his upper part of his body, while his lower half was already wearing sweatpants for sleeping. He took a quick glance at the mirror above the dresser and stared at himself for a while, taking in the fact that his face has lost most of the youthfulness that defined his facial expressions for a good part of his life. He walked out of the room never noticing that his daughter's phone was taken, and went towards the front door. It was a crisp morning; much cooler than yesterday due to the heaters from Sahara Square being in normal condition, deflecting the heat away from the Rainforest district, and thus it was far more comfortable for the snow leopard to venture out into the outdoors; even if Tundra Town would be more appropriate for his particular genus it was actually quite a bit cheaper in the rainforest because it was both larger and less populated due to the average size of the species that reside in the district being quite a bit smaller than the cold weather species, translating to smaller housing, and less pressure to build up. His neighbors were slightly apprehensive when he first moved into the area due to having less familiarity to large cat species, but warmed up to him as they gotten to know him better.

He spotted one of them jogging down the street and smiled at him, "Hey Jackson!" The antelope turned his head towards the leopard and gave a friendly wave back, "Morning, Luther!" he yelled as he ran by. Jackson in particular was particularly phobic towards big cats, who himself was a antelope; historically a natural prey of a leopard. And was the most vocal opponent against Luther, even going as far as calling the police on him a few times stemming from his fear that Luther would attempt to harm him or his family; after the third time Luther walked to his house, and acted as friendly as he could towards the antelope. His neighbor was completely surprised by Luther's politeness and swallowed his fear by allowing the larger snow leopard into his house to meet his wife and three children, after Luther won over the antelope's young and his mate he eventually shook his paw and promised not to cause anymore trouble, and even now invited him and his daughter to neighborhood parties. Luther reminisced his daily morning walk with his own mate long ago, before the birth of his cubs; as they both walked past houses of various styles and sizes, and stopped at a particular spot in a park nearby that afforded an amazing view of the Zootopian skyline, and even brought Rena along once as a young cub. But now it was just him that sat at the bench looking at the valley below with nostalgia. "Might be a good time to call her." he took out his phone and went right to contacts; upon pressing the call button he waited for a while before it was picked up, " _Luther?"_ The snow leopard grew a small smile, "Hey Cassie, just calling to see if you're still up for our date later." he asked a little nervously, " _Of course! I wouldn't want to miss out on a chance to see my favorite leopard!"_ she replied happily, "Alright, uh...we'll meet at the restaurant at noon, okay?" checking his watch to see he had a few more hours to get ready, " _Okay, I'll see you then, sweetie."_ Luther blushed a bit at the little pet name she given him, "Okay, bye." he hung up and sighed as he got up from the bench and began to walk back home.

Rena was a pretty heavy sleeper, and vastly preferred not being woken up anywhere close to when her father woke up; it took the constant yelling of Luther to wake her up on a school day, and during the weekend he didn't even bother as persuading the leopardess to get out of bed earlier in the morning was as futile as a mouse trying to push a rhino out of the way in a line to get coffee. She was curled up with a stuffed carrot plushie given to her by a elderly rabbit when they visited a farmer's market long ago, and to this day despite the odd image of an adolescent leopardess holding a representation of an object that she couldn't even consume in the first place, at least without a stomachache. It was already late in the morning, and the ray of sunlight that managed to eek its way through her curtains was aimed right at her eyes, causing to stir in annoyance, " _My gods, this stupid sun..."_ her eyes slowly cracked open, and instantly she shielded them from the vicious rays, "Er..." she tossed around and tried her best to go back to sleep, but it was pointless by then and she reluctantly forced herself up from the bed. After yawning and vigorously stretching for a few minutes to remove any drowsiness from her body, and checked her phone; which only had one message from her boyfriend. " _I'm at the mall right now if you want to meet up."_ It was delivered recently enough for her to consider it; she smiled and texted back, " _Come pick me up."_ He almost immediately replied, " _I'll be there in a few then."_ It was enough motivation for her to at least clean herself up a bit, not a habit that she developed during her earlier years, even with the encouragement of her father. She brushed her fur down and applied a bit of sheen from a bottle to make it look a little brighter than usual, and went to the bathroom and to brush her teeth. Rena noticed that her father wasn't in the house, she knew that he was taking a walk somewhere and wouldn't be back for a while, she decided against taking a shower at it would have taken too long and she had one two days ago, so she just applied some deodorant to mask any unpleasant smell. Dashing to the kitchen she debated whether or not to bring to eat some cereal or not; she considered herself the queen of quick breakfasts but even she didn't want to wait up Martin in his car. So she just grabbed a protein bar and munched it quickly down, just in time for Martin to text her, " _I'm here."_ Rena dashed out of the house, and on the curb awaited the buck in his appropriately sized blue two door car. "Rena!" he called out, the leopardess grinned, "Marty!" The deer grimaced a bit, "I told you that name is a stupid nickname!" Rena grinned, "Whatever... _Marty."_ she teased; he sighed and decided to ignore it. She climbed inside the car and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek, "I thought you were working today." Martin chuckled, "My shift starts at four today, so I decided to just hang out with my pretty leopardess." He nuzzled his nose against her cheek as deer traditionally do to show affection. Rena melodramatically fawned over his words, "Aw..." she then delivered a playful punch to his arm. He delivered a little yelp, "Hey!" Rena gave him a toothy grin showcasing her sharp teeth towards the herbivore, "Come on, how are you going to be my protector if a jab kills you?" Martin blushed, "Uh..." The leopardess giggled, "You're such a wuss." Martin looked towards the road in embarrassment, "Am not."

Martin and Rena met several months ago at the mall; where the deer worked at a vegan smoothie store that was obviously catered for the herbivore crowd, Rena was actually waiting nearby on a table waiting for Janice to finish buying some clothing for school. It also happened to be Martin's lunch break, and he left the store to buy a salad for himself; he normally sat at the same table that Rena was sitting at, and was a bit taken back by what he considered his normal seat to be occupied by the leopardess. "Uh...hello, miss?" he called out a bit nervously, the leopardess looked at him with a bit of an annoyed scowl, "What?" Martin rubbed the back of his neck and looked away, "Your sort of...sitting on my seat." Rena smirked, "Its the mall, dude. Anyone can sit anywhere they like, and I don't see your name anywhere on it.", reclining on the seat to prove her point. Martin sighed, "Sorry to bother you...I just sit somewhere else then." Rena felt a pang of guilt from giving him lip and shrugged, "You can sit with me, I mean you're kind of cute." Martin blushed and his ears perked up, "R-Really?" he stuttered a bit, Rena laughed at his nervousness, "Of course! What, scared I might bite?" she emphasized with a small playful growl at the end. The buck slowly sat down, "Not at all, uh, thanks." He began to dig into his fruit salad, while Rena watched with some interest at seeing a herbivore's meal, "So, where do you work at?" Martin pointed at the smoothie store close by, "There, I'm actually on break, if you haven't noticed." The leopardess nodded, "You know...I think I've seen you at school before, Moosevelt High?" Martin looked up and smiled a bit, "Yeah." He didn't seem to conjure up any recognition of her, but Rena did now remember, "Wait...we take chemistry together!" Martin was surprised, "Really? I'm a grade ahead of you." Rena chuckled, "I have an interest in chemistry." Martin's tail began to move slightly in excitement, "Really? Me too!" The deer's expression grew brighter, "What do you like about it?" Rena shrugged, "Well...the explosions caused by the reactions of different chemicals seem pretty kick ass, you know?" Martin was taken a bit aback by the statement but still smiled, "Explosions? I just like the equations part, and conversions." Rena stuck her tongue out, "So you're a nerd then?" Martin choked a bit on his salad, "What? Course not!" She liked teasing the buck, "Well, judging from how you approached me earlier, and the fact you like math seems to show otherwise." Martin crossed his arms in annoyance, "I'm not a nerd." Rena rolled her eyes, "Whatever, nerd." Martin went back to his salad, "Stop that." Rena had fun with him, and thought he was pretty cute in how he huffed at the suggestion of being a nerd, "Anyways, what's your name?" she asked, "Martin...Castillo." Rena grinned, "Ooh...what a sexy name." Martin froze, "Uh..." The leopardess laughed, "Wow...such a nerd. Rena Collins." she handed her paw for him to shake. He shook it and went back to his salad, "So, are you waiting for someone here?" he asked, the leopardess nodded, "For a friend, she's taking forever, females you know?" Martin was confused, "Uh...aren't you one?" Rena grinned, "Course, but I don't exactly fit the stereotype of a shopaholic." Finally the ferret arrived carrying a few bags, "Whew! Finally done. Who's this?" she asked wondering what her friend was doing with the deer, "This Janice...is Martin _Castillo."_ she emphasized, embarrassing the buck further, making him groan. "Martin, this is Janice." Janice shook his paw, "Nice to meet you, Martin." The deer smiled, "You too." Rena got up from the chair, "Anyways. Gotta go, it was nice meeting you Martin." She teased him with brushing his arm with her tail, causing him to blush. "B-Bye." He watched the pair walk away, and he noticed he dropped his salad on the floor by banging it on the table, "Aw crap." As she noticed his little incident Janice giggled, "That Martin...such a dork." Rena smirked, "But cute though; won't be the last time we meet."

 _ **This was a bit of a longer chapter than usual, so think of it as a bit of a treat for you wonderful people. But as always, thanks for reading this addition to this story, make sure to leave a comment or review, and I'll read them. See ya :)**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**Bit of an advisory; I feel that the next few chapters of this story may start to push the teen rating somewhat, not enough to justify bumping up the rating at all, but it would definitely emphasize the warnings that were given in the story's description. Just a head's up. Enjoy this next chapter!**_

Traffic normally during this time of day would be fairly light; however due to an accident involving a hamster's car somehow flipping over a llama's car, the resulting chaos on a two lane street meant cars were backed up for a least a mile. Despite this unfortunate turn of events, it did give some more time for the leopard and deer to chat to at least pass the time. "You know, I've always wanted to get a motorcycle." Rena admitted, the deer looked at her like if she went mad, "A motorcycle? Rena, Zootopia's isn't exactly the type of environment for something like that, I mean; the speed limit inside the city is low already, and it gets pretty uncomfortable for motorcycle riders." Rena scoffed, "Please, as if being in a car stuck in traffic is any better, look at this freaking traffic!" Martin knew she was in a foul mood, "Sweetie, its not like these kind of things happen everyday on this street, we just drive past the accident and we're golden." The snow leopard did like the fact that the buck try to assure herself, but couldn't muster up any positive feelings for the sake of it. She then felt her paw being held by Martin's, and smiled a little, "Okay, I won't piss myself in frustration then, happy?" Martin chuckled, "Whatever makes you happy." He was rewarded with a peck on his cheek, "Such a sweet nerdy buck."

Eventually the traffic did clear out and the rest of the ride went easily, as the deer parked his car closed to the entrance he sighed, "I'm kind of sick of it." Rena shifted her attention from her phone to her boyfriend, "Sick of what?" Martin shrugged and gestured towards a small group of prey animals protesting against predator ownership of the mall, "They wouldn't shut up about it; ever since ownership by an businessmammal, he's a brown bear from Sealttle. It used to be owned by a family of prey, I think they were a family of mice or something, but they are starting to bother predator customers, and its causing trouble for everyone." Rena noticed a police cruiser pull up on the protesting group and out came some familiar faces, "Wait...hey its Nick and Judy!" Martin squinted his eyes at the duo, "Who?" Rena smiled, "They were the two that arrested me-" she then shut her mouth immediately, but Martin heard the last word clearly, "You were arrested?" Rena sighed, "Y-Yeah. I kind of got into a fight with someone." Martin became very concerned, "What?" She was scanned by the buck for any signs of damage, "Who did this?" he practically growled, the leopardess was slightly taken aback by his sudden anger, "It was just some punk who tried to cheat me in a basketball game, nothing serious." Martin held her by her arms, "Rena, please, if someone is trying to hurt you, you need to let me know!" Despite her teasing about Martin being a nerd, she knew that he could hold his own in a fight, "Okay, but please for the love of the gods, please don't get yourself in trouble trying to protect me." The deer nodded, "I promise." Rena smiled and kissed him in the lips, with him returning it for a few seconds before letting go. "Anyways, so you know those two cops?" he asked, Rena smirked, "Yep, I feel they're better off being a comedic act rather than officers of the law, but that's my opinion."

Nick and Judy headed towards the Rainforest Mall after receiving information from Clawhauser concerning a disturbance from a group of mammals bothering incoming customers into the mall; the fox discovered through social media that it was a pro-prey group that promoted the 'advancement of prey interests', and was rather disappointed to learn that since the mall's owner was now a bear, they felt threatened by the thought of 'predator takeover' of large organizations. "You know Carrots, you would think that prejudice would at least be toned down after the Nighthowler incident." The doe sighed, "I know Nick, but its going to take a lot more than a simple speech to overcome years of stereotypes." They pulled up towards the group, and rolled down the window, "Excuse me! Who's in charge of this operation?" Judy yelled out to the group; a koala walked front, "I'm the leader of our organization, Pray for Prey." Judy nodded, "Mm-hmm...listen, we've been getting complaints from what it seems like predators about your group threatening them and telling them to leave the mall." The koala undignified, "What? That's ridiculous, we've been a group promoting equality for years; these predators are just trying to discredit our just cause!" Nick popped out of the vehicle and smirked, "That so? Interesting, considering a particular mammal that came up in our calls was a koala that matched your description." The koala clenched his paws and looked away, "Where did you hear that?" Suddenly a voice broke out, "Sinner!" The group turned their attention to two mammals entering the mall, "Betrayer! Traitor! Is this how you get your kicks!" various insults were targeted at a young couple. Nick and Judy recognized to their horror the leopard holding a deer's paw, "Hey! It's that leopard from yesterday!" Judy said to the fox, he nodded, "Looks like trouble's about to brew." The snow leopard herself seemed rather angry at the group, "Shut up, leave him out of this!" she growled, standing tall in front of her terrified boyfriend. Nick putting his paws up came between the feuding group and the couple, "Alright, break it up. I'd hate for this to get ugly, especially considering we've just got here." Judy sprung forward and held the leopardess' paw for assurance, "Don't worry, we're here to make sure things go peacefully, I won't let them hurt you in anyway." Rena smiled gratefully, "Thanks." She kept herself close to Martin to make sure he wasn't harmed either, "Go inside, we'll take care of this sticky situation." Rena and Martin nodded and quickly made their way inside the mall. Judy redirected her attention towards the fuming group, " _Promoting equality,_ eh?" The doe's foot was tapping on the ground in a scolding way, "You all should be ashamed, targeting young mammals like that, you're no better then a group of troublemakers!" Nick joined and smirked, "Now Carrots, from my years of dealing of these types of 'concerned citizens', you need to know that the only way they are going to leave others along is if they feel that they accomplished something." He went into the police cruiser and brought out a notepad and a pen, "Now. The proper way to get someone's attention _without_ intimidation or violence is to write a petition or a complaint." he created an attitude of professionalism to help remove some of the 'edge' that the hostile group had against a fox police officer. He wrote down several references and handed out the piece of paper to the confused koala, "Communication is key to create civil discourse between opposing ends of an issue; thus, I believe the best way to talk peacefully to the owner of this fine establishment is mediation." Judy was astonished at the choice of words coming out of the normal sarcastic officer's mouth. The koala himself seemed conflicted at the sheer politeness, and nodded confusedly, "Err...okay?" Nick gave a friendly smile, "Cool. Now would you so kindly as to leave the premises, and not to bother any more customers?" The leader grimaced and sighed, "Whatever, _fox._ " he spat, Nick kept his cool entirely and waved goodbye, "Thanks for your cooperation." Judy ran towards her partner in shock, "Nick! Where did you learn to talk like that?" He chuckled and put on his sunglasses, "Talk is cheap. But it doesn't mean that it wouldn't work with a group that is...unfriendly." He tilted his head towards the entrance of the mall, "Let's check on our friend."

Nick and Judy quickly found the snow leopard simultaneously texting on her phone while also chatting with the still somewhat buck sitting by her on a fountain; the fox was amused by how well Rena seemed to deal with the whole incident, going so far as to protect the taller buck from harm's way. " _Now that's what I call tough love."_ he thought as the duo approached the fountain, "Quite the ruckus those prey caused, eh?" he yelled out to them. Rena looked up in surprised and then smirked, "Give me a break, the biggest mammal in that group was an elephant, and they're not known for being good fighters." Judy was rather concerned at the callousness that the leopardess displayed earlier at a group of prey earlier, "Err...Rena right? I know that you were trying to help out, but uh..." She was met with a glare, "Don't try to say that I should depend on the police when trouble arises, I'm perfectly capable of helping myself, thank you." The cold attitude that Rena first displayed towards the officers was quickly returning, Nick attempted to defuse the situation, "Spots." Rena's face scrunched up in confusion, " _Spots?"_ The fox nodded, "Yep, that's my new name for you. Anyways, you're what, 14? You're already starting fights with entire groups of mammals, that's a recipe for disaster, young lady." Rena growled, "I'm _almost_ 15, and I can handle myself." Martin wrapped his arm around her, "Uh, can I say something?" The fox and leopard both glared at him, which intimidated the life out of him, but he swallowed his fear, "I think that he's right." Rena scoffed, "Really Martin, now your siding against me?" The deer shook his head, "No. I love you, and I don't ever want anything to happen to you. So, for the sake of your life and my sanity, please take his advice and...calm down." The leopardess groaned, "Whatever, you're sounding just like my dad." Judy chuckled, "I'm sure your father will appreciate you being more mature with your decisions." Nick cracked his neck, "Well, we need to go, you know...police stuff." Judy nodded and joined him, "Yep, duty calls!" Martin smiled, "Thanks so much for helping us back there!" He shoved Rena, "Huh? Oh. Thanks." Judy walked up towards the leopardess and held out a paw, "Its our job." Rena shook her paw, "Well, keep at it I guess." The doe gave an enthusiastic salute, "Yes, ma'am!" Nick gave a hearty laugh, "Oh Carrots, if you weren't so adorable I would have died from the cringe." Judy gave a playful glare, "Right, like you don't make others cringe."

For the remainder of Martin's time before he had to go to work, they mostly just walked around the complex, chatting to each other and catching with other familiar faces that also prowled the mall. "You sure that you'll be fine?" Martin asked, Rena gave the buck a tight hug, "Of course, I'll take the bus back to my neighborhood, totally not an issue." The events that unfolded today have definitely taken a toll on the poor deer and he was fairly paranoid that a hostile member of the prey group may see the frankly vulnerable teen leopardess as a target for some wicked motives, he gazed at the leopard's eyes for a moment; taking in the dark hazelnut richness and for a moment felt somewhat entranced but snapped out of it, "I'll see you later." Rena nodded, "Yeah, I'm just going to chill out at my room for the rest of the day anyways." They gave each other a hearty goodbye smooch, and parted ways. The leopardess exited the mall and walked through the parking lot; while she was busy texting on her phone a car burned out close to her, grabbing her attention, " _Crazy driver..."_ The white SUV pulled up close to her and the window rolled down, revealing the koala from earlier with an angered expression, "That's her!" Rena didn't take a second guess from that expression and quickly booked it away from the SUV, " _Oh shit! Oh shit! Where are those two dumb cops when you need them?!"_ Leopards were quick, and she was definitely no exception; but even she couldn't outrun a vehicle that quickly maneuvering itself around the lot, " _Nick! Judy! Martin! Dad! Anyone!"_ she desperately thought as she ran towards the street. " _Why are they after me? I'm just a stupid little cat!"_ The SUV quickly caught up to her and blocked her way out, " _Oh for fox's sake."_ The leopardess couldn't just run back as they would just drive anywhere that she attempted to run to. The passenger door opened and the koala along with a brown hare and a pig jumping out of the vehicle; the leopardess slowly back up and found herself backed up into a minivan. She put her paws up, "Guys! I know you're pissed about what I did, but violence never solved anything right?" The koala smirked as the group threateningly approached her, "Not so tough now, _stupid_ _pred._ " Tears started to flow down her eyes in fear that this was it for her life, " _Sorry, dad, I'm just another dead cub now."_ she closed her eyes and braced herself. But her end never came and she slowly opened her eyes, and to her shock all three of the hostile mammals were unconscious on the ground with darts sticking out in various parts of their body, "What the..." she looked around to find out who shot them but saw no one. She quickly dashed back towards the mall, " _What was that? Who...wait."_ She remembered that the fox and rabbit were probably still nearby; but decided the safest route would be to seek refuge inside the building until at least her boyfriend was done with his shift.

 _ **Did you catch the reference? I know its kind of obvious, but I can't miss an opportunity to acknowledge my hometown at least once :) Thanks for reading!**_


	7. Chapter 7

**_Not much to say right now, just another wholesome chapter :)_**

" _I hope I dressed right."_ Luther thought as he entered a sushi restaurant; the head chef of the establishment was an elderly tanuki, who had arrived to Zootopia many years ago as a child by himself after his parents abandoned him nearby a shipyard, leaving him no choice but to hop onto a random ship as a stowaway and arriving at Zootopia was soon adopted by a lynx who work at the docks. Luther met him a few years ago when he came upon the restaurant itself, and soon became a regular at the sushi place itself. "Luther!" The chef swung his chef's knife to catch the leopard's attention, "Hey, Yamada!" The leopard sat down at the bar, "How's things?" he asked, the tanuki stuck out his tongue, "Well, aside from getting my tail nearly chopped off again, I've been fine!" Luther grimaced, "Yamada, you really should be more careful! I highly doubt any customer is going to want tanuki tail on their plate." The chef grinned, "Perhaps not, however they may find my sizable-" Luther shook his paws, "Hey! Hey! No need to start with those jokes!" Even in his old age, his dirty attitude remained a strong part of himself, "I've met many females who appreciated me and my...prowess." He chuckled as he returning to chopping up some more fish, "Anyways, what brings you here?" Luther gave a nervous smile, "Actually. I'm here with someone." Yamada lifted an eyebrow, "Really? A friend?" The snow leopard shyly shook his head, "A bit closer than that." The tanuki had a moment of confusion before it hit him, and he smirked, "A _lady_ friend." His chopping got slower, "Tell me then, is she lovely?" The leopard squirmed a bit, "I guess, yeah." Yamada's smirk became more mischievous, "Did you and her do the 'deed' together?" The leopard became quite annoyed, "I'm not going to reveal that here!" The tanuki noticed someone approach Luther, "Is that her?" He turned and smiled, "Hey, Cassie." The tanuki noticed it wasn't a leopardess but rather a black wolf, "Ah..." He watched as the leopard and gave her a quick kiss on the lips, "I'm glad you were able to make it." Cassie herself warmly smiled, "I'm sorry if I'm late, but there was a group of weird prey that were yelling about 'prey rights', but they left me alone." Luther hugged her for comfort, "Yeah. Bunch of idiots if you ask me." He pulled out a seat for her, "You'll love his sushi, best I've ever had." Cassie giggled, "Are you its not just because you're a feline?" Luther shrugged at the jab, "Probably, but I'm still recommending it."

Rena hid herself in a dark corner of the mall, away from any prying eyes that would dare to even look in her general direction. As tears flowed down her face, she couldn't even muster the strength to at least call anyone on her phone, as the fear of giving herself away at all to mammals she didn't trust which was quickly becoming anyone even remotely suspicious. "Are you okay?" a young voice called out, Rena looked up and saw a concerned bear cub, "I'm fine...leave me alone." The cub saw tears falling from her face, "I can tell mom to come here, she said if someone's hurt to call for an adult." The leopardess's heart subtly stung from that statement, "No, I'm fine, I swear, please go back to your mom." He shook his head, "No you're not! You're bleeding!" Rena suddenly stopped crying, "Huh? Where?" The young bear pointed to her left leg which seemed to have been scratched from earlier, "Oh...I'll be fine." The cub fumed and ran somewhere. She covered her wound that wasn't covered by her shorts, " _Why? I didn't do anything wrong this time."_ Soon two bears returned, "Miss?" Rena looked back up and saw the cub returned along with his mother, "My son told me you're bleeding, did something happen?" The leopardess shook her head, "No, just an accident." The mother bear reached for her purse and rummaged around, "Let's see, here we go!" She got out a band-aid and gently applied it to her wound, "There we go." Rena sniffed, "T-Thanks." The mother bear smiled, "Do want me to help you find your parents?" Rena was grateful but refused, "No, it's fine. I can here alone, I'm going home soon anyways." The older bear grabbed her child's paw, "Be careful, then." The bear cub happily waved, "Bye, miss!" Rena chuckled at being called that, "Bye." She watched as they left the vicinity, and checked her phone, "Guess I'm stuck here for a couple of hours." She decided that it would be safer to stay at a busier part of the mall in order to at least be seen if someone tried to harm her. Her stomach growled, " _Great_..." She didn't have any money on her at the moment as she thought the whole trip to the mall was just to hang out with Martin. She didn't even want to consider leaving the mall for fear of being caught again by the hostile prey, and she didn't want to bother her boyfriend while he was working, "Just one last thing then." She pulled out her phone and went for her father's number; sighing she pressed on the call button.

Luther and Cassie were busy chatting to each other while enjoying their own various dishes of cuisine; "So Cassie, I know we both have work tomorrow. But I can drop you off at your workplace if you wanna; you know." He suggested with a wink, the black wolf giggled, "Oh Luther, you naughty big kitty~" Suddenly his phone vibrated, breaking him out of their intimate conversation, he groaned and pulled it out, "Rena?" Cassie tilted her head, "Isn't this your daughter?" Luther nodded, "But, I thought I took her phone away, must've taken it away when I left; can't really blame her though." He accepted the call, "Hey, Rena." He heard growling, "Did you call just because you're hungry?" he said with some annoyance, "Well you know...yeah." she replied, he hung his head down in frustration, "Rena. You're 14, you're more than capable of taking care of yourself." She released a nervous chuckle, "I'm not home, and I don't have any money." Luther resisted the temptation to smack his face with his paw, "Where are you?" He gave his date an apologetic look, "I'm busy with something right now." he said to her, "I'm at the mall." The elder leopard stiffened, "The mall? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at home?" Rena sighed, "I was here with Martin." The leopard held back a growl, "Your boyfriend." He noticed Cassie looking a bit concerned, "Where are you, dad?" Luther bit his lip, "Uh, also at the mall. Look I'll meet you later, wait where you are okay? Bye." he hung up. The wolf whined a little, "Is she okay?" Luther tried to assure her with a smile, "Yeah, just hungry. Typical little cub."

Rena heard him hung up, she felt lonely now without either her father or boyfriend, or any friend to at least be around to talk to. The leopardess decided that it would be quicker to try to find her father rather than just wait for him to arrive. She tried to guess where he could be, but the building was itself massive, and full of mammals; it would take hours for her to find him, but she it was better anyways to find him first. After some prowling around, she stumbled upon a sushi restaurant, "Hmm. My dad likes sushi, maybe he's here." She entered the restaurant, and was greeted by a waiter who was a rather young looking arctic fox, "Can I help you, miss?" he asked, Rena nodded, "Is my dad here, you know, snow leopard but taller?" The fox nodded, "Well, there is only one in this place, I assume that's the mammal you're talking about." He gestured towards sushi bar, and they both walked towards the other leopard. "Dad?" she called out, causing him to turn around, "Rena?" The leopardess noticed someone else, "Uh...who's this?" Cassie smiled and held out a paw, "I'm Cassie." Rena confusedly shook her paw, "Nice to meet you, um..." The wolf chuckled, "Oh, I'm sorry! I'm dating your father." Rena gasped, "Wait, what?" Luther panicked as he saw her begin to scowl, "R-Rena, wait!" he was stopped by her snarling, "So, me dating a deer is taboo for you. But apparently you dating her is okay?" The surprise gave way to anger, which was quickly burning into rage. Luther tried to salvage the situation, but had little experience on how to handle adolescent behavior, "Sweetheart, I'm sorry I got mad from you dating a deer. I just don't want anything to happen to you!" She clenched her paws and tears once again began to escape her eyes, "You're such an asshole! I don't know why I even bother with you!" she quickly turned around and sped out of the restaurant leaving both Luther and Cassie utterly shocked, " _Rena..."_

Rena ran to the only place that she felt would do any good for her; running into towards the smoothie shop she ended up to the counter, where a pig employee stood there confused at the display, "Uh...is there something you want?" Rena panted for air with tears running down her face, "Is...Martin...here?" The pig slowly nodded, "He's at the back." He noticed the leopard going into the kitchen, "Ma'am, employees only!" Rena ignored him and ran towards the familiar buck, and tightly hugged him from behind, eliciting a gasp, "Ow!" he turned and saw a clearly upset Rena clinging on to him, "Rena? Did something happen?!" The leopardess continued to cry, "Can I stay at your house tonight?" He quickly became very concerned, "Did you get hurt? Tell me, please!" She sniffed, "Please, I know it's a school night; but I _really_ need you right now." Martin noticed the pig smirking at him, and he grimaced, "No, its not like that, Jarvis!" The pig snorted, "Pff...that's what they all say." Martin was grabbed into a passionate kiss, and sparks soon flied between them. His surprise grew into acceptance, then wanting; after they let go, he was amazed at how strong their kiss was, "Whoa. I'm not gonna lie, I didn't expect to be you to be such a great kisser." The leopardess hugged him tighter, "I don't really want to go back home." Martin nodded, "You can come with me then." Rena already began to feel better but still the lingering sense of betrayal plagued her consciousness, "Do you think your parents will be okay with me over there?" Martin softly chuckled, "Don't worry. Honestly, they're too busy to care that their son is dating someone outside their species." He nuzzled her headfur affectionately, "Stay at the table over there, I won't let Jarvis bother you anymore." The leopardess sniffed and nodded, "Right, I'll be totally fine, love you." Martin turned back his attention to his work, "Love you too."

 _ **Thanks for the support!**_


	8. Chapter 8

**_Now this is where the story really starts to pick up, and thus the chapters will continue to increase in length, and like I said earlier; their will be stronger themes from here on out._**

Nick was reclining at his desk, staring absentmindedly at a report that he was supposed to turn in; concerning his and Judy's run in into the prey protest group at the Rainforest Mall. "Hmm..." he tapped his pen on the desk trying to think of the right words so that it was sufficiently professional enough to appease Chief Bogo, while at the same time keeping the amount of effort required down, as not to cause him to want to jump out of the window in despair. He tapped a few keystrokes, but quickly backspaced, " _Crap. Can't think of anything that would help our case."_ He sneaked a peek at Judy's desk across from him and as usual was quickly finishing her own report. With a grin he whistled, "Wow Carrots, with that sort of speed it wouldn't be a stretch to replace an entire computer network with you." The rabbit waved him off, "Yeah, yeah. Wait until I'm done before you bother me with jokes." The fox's grin melted away into a slight frown, "Ouch. Okay then, miss serious to a fault." Internally he did take some offense to her disregard at his joke, but showing any hostility back towards her would only cause them to tussle which would land them both straight to Bogo's office to earn an earful from the buffalo. "Attention, all units, we've got a situation regarding a prison riot in Clawifornia!" Fangmeyer bellowed out, causing various mammals to erupt in interest; leaving only the fox to groan, "Great, more work." he muttered as all of them rushed to the meeting that Bogo had set up.

The atmosphere was proving to be a mixture of excitement and worry, it didn't help that two of the canine officers got into a tussle into who would be the one to lead the chase. Bogo slammed down a stack of folders onto his desk to snap all the officers into attention, "Listen, we've got a real mess on our paws. The local police force that was attempting to control the situation has been overwhelmed and there are reports of several prisoners that have been reported missing." Bogo stated through a file delivered over email. Judy fidgeted in her seat; her entire body was heeding the call to action, and had to will herself to stay attached to the seat. "Obviously, Zootopia is fairly close by to the incident, and we're under a state of heightened alert. As a result, we are routing some resources towards the pursuit and apprehension of any felons that are seeking refuge in our entire precinct." A tiger officer raised his paw, "Excuse me, but do we even have any information about the whereabouts of any prisoners in the city?" The chief opened one of the folders and laid down a single sheet of paper; Judy thought back to the time when she first began her missing mammals case and the same thing happened to her. He pointed towards a map of Zootopia behind him, "We've got reports that match a suspect's descriptions with one of the missing prisoners, these reports cluster near the border of Downtown and Tundra Town, that's all we got to go along with." Nick became intrigued, " _Tundra Town? I think I might have an idea."_ He turned to his partner who was already thinking of the same thing. They nodded, "Chief! Judy and I would like to request that we take charge of this case!" Nick yelled out through the noise; it soon died down, leaving with only a stern-looking Bogo, to his surprise he seemed to agree, "Right. I'm counting on both of you to make sure that this criminal is brought to justice." Both the rabbit and fox firmly saluted, "Yes, sir!" The buffalo hid a smile, "Don't screw this one up, lives may be at stake. Dismissed."

Martin and Rena pulled up at his house, it was much larger than her own, and clearly well-maintained in contrast to their generally run down residence. "Here we are." Rena wasn't familiar with his home, having only really hung out outside both of their houses. She noticed two other cars at the driveway, "Your parents are home, huh?" The buck nodded, "Yep, normally they wouldn't be home for another hour or so, but they didn't work today." They got out of the car and walked towards the door; with each step closer she became increasingly nervous, " _What if they yell at him for dating me?"_ Her paw tightened its grip to the point of discomfort for the deer, "Rena. My paw." The leopardess snapped out of her thoughts, "Oh, sorry." She immediately let go of him. With a deep breath, Martin opened the door, "Mom! Dad! I'm home!" he yelled out; Rena noticed a younger male deer staring at a rather large TV playing a video game, "Aw sweet! He has that new zombie first-person shooter!" The younger buck took a quick glance and smirked, "Hey look, Marty's got a girlfriend!" Martin blushed, "Devin, didn't Mom told you to do your homework?" His younger brother waved his paw dismissively, "Whatever, its only like 6:30." The elder brother rolled his eyes, "Come on Rena, my dad's probably in the kitchen." The leopardess forced a friendly smile on her face, "Okay."

The kitchen itself was spacious and clearly at the high-end, befitting the high status that the Castillo family seem to command. At the stove, was another buck busy watching over several pots and pans, "Dad!" The buck turned and smiled, "Martin!" As they hugged, Rena noted that Martin was slightly taller than his own father and had a different pattern of fur. "Ah, this must be Rena!" Rena held out a paw, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Castillo." The father instead went for a friendly hug, "Ah, don't call me that. Makes me feel old, and I hear it enough at the office. Just call me Javier." Rena felt an aura of genuine fatherly love from him, "O-Okay." Javier was dressed rather formally despite being in his own home, wearing smart causal that wouldn't look out of place in any professional business settings. "I'm making cabbage and carrot stew." He noticed the leopardess looking a little disappointed. "But you only eat meat huh? I'm sorry, I don't have any food that would be suitable for your diet." Rena shook her paws, "No, its totally fine, I'm not hungry." Seemingly on time her stomach growled, which made all three stop and break out into a fit of chuckles. "It's not good to starve yourself trying to be polite! I'm sure we can do something to help." Javier insisted, "Tell you what. I'll go to the store right now, and purchase some fish; it will be perfect for the stew." Rena was confused, "But I thought deer was strictly herbivores." Martin chuckled, "Actually, deer can handle meat okay, and we occasionally eat fish. Its good for protein." The snow leopardess seemed impressed, "Huh. Interesting." Javier grabbed his car keys, "The store is very close; Martin, look over the food for me!" His son nodded, "Got it."

Rena observed the buck as he methodically stirred the contents of the pot and added an assortment of spices into the stew, "You cook?" Her boyfriend nodded, "Yep, my dad taught me. Said that it was important when I move out that I know how to cook; he said it would attract mates-" He froze, leaving Rena to develop a mischievous grin, "Attract mates you say?" Martin shuddered as her tail brushed against his, "Uh...R-Rena?" The leopardess' teasing returned, "Would you cook _me_ something?" Martin gulped, "O-Of course! If it would make you happy." She whispered into his ear, "I would like that." The deer was undignified by her actions, "If you want me that _bad."_ he wrapped her in his arm holding her close and began licking at her cheek causing her to chuckle as it tickled, "Whoa there! Ease off there tiger!" playfully attempting to push him away. Suddenly another mammal came into the kitchen, "Martin!" The buck gasped, "Mom!" Rena yelped in shock and quickly turned towards an older female deer who was standing there, "Ah! Uh hey, M-Mrs. Castillo." Martin's mother was shorter than both of them, leaving the adolescent leopard a bit unsure on how to approach her. The doe looked shocked by the display of affection, "Who's that?" Martin cleared his throat, "Ahem. Uh, this is Rena. My girlfriend I've been talking about." His mother frowned a bit, "You didn't tell me she was a feline." Martin sighed, "I know, sorry about not telling you." Rena felt a bit awkward, "Yep, I'm basically a cat." The doe tilted her head, "I've never seen a species like yours before." Rena smiled, "I'm a snow leopard, not exactly a common species to be sure." Her tail swished around to emphasize herself. Mrs. Castillo chuckled, "Well, I'll have to admit, you're a beautiful young lady." The leopardess blushed, "Oh! Uh, thanks." Martin also was taken a back by his mother's compliment, " _Mom_..." he groaned out in embarrassment. The doe gave a gentle smile, "Oh, my little Martin is growing up so fast!" The display of Martin trying to fend off his mother's affection definitely put Rena completely into ease with his family, " _Okay, this might work out fine._ "

Across town, a police cruiser was speeding down the highway that led straight into Tundra Town, "Alright Nick. You said you had an idea on where this fugitive might be." She kept her eyes on the road, but make a quick glance to confirm her suspicion that he was on his phone, "Nick!" she yelled making him drop his phone; he gave a quick glare at her and pick it up from the floor of the car, "Relax Carrots, I'm just contacting an old friend that knows his ins in outs of the area, if anyone of interest has made their home at the place, he definitely is going to have some information on the prisoner." The doe sighed, "Please tell me he's an abiding citizen of the law?" Nick nervously chuckled, "Well, if you stretch the definition of law." Judy groaned and gripped the steering wheel tighter, "We can't keep depending on shady sources for information, we might get into trouble like with Mr. Big earlier!" The fox shrugged, "Don't worry, with Mr. Big on our side, its a lot less likely anyone is going to mess with us! I bet my tail." He reclined into his seat and took a sip of his coffee that bought earlier. The rabbit chuckled a little, "Whatever you say, smug fox."

They arrived at a dilapidated church, "He's waiting here. Keep your wits." Judy nodded and kept her dart gun and taser on her belt to keep things close to paw if the going got rough. Nick pushed one of the large doors open, "Samson!" he yelled out, a shuffling noise came from one of the pews near the organ, "I told you not to say my name." he called out. "Well, too bad. I'm here for information." A _very_ young looking ibex popped into view, "What kind of info we talking about?" Judy couldn't take the ibex seriously, he looked barely 10, if even that. "Um...we're here on ZPD business, to collect info on a possible sighting of a prisoner escapee that took refuge here, sir." Samson smiled, "I'll be more than happy to assist the ZPD!" Judy grinned, "That's great-" His expression turned into a scowl, "At kissing my _ass_." Judy was shocked at the young ibex's language, it definitely reminded her of Finnick's attitude as well. Nick scratched his ear, "Listen, Samson-" The ibex was further angered, "Stop calling me that." The fox smirked, "Whatever, special little cupcake. Judy and I need that information now, I'm not above getting what I want from children." Judy looked at him bewildered, "What are you saying?" Nick shushed her, "Now, I know you have heard about the prison outbreak, and that one of those prisoners have came here. It seems strange that someone who previously lived all the way in Clawifornia would come here; not exactly the most promising place for a criminal to reform himself." Samson gave the best growl he could muster, but came out more as an annoyed groan, "And what do I get in return?" The fox nodded, "Of course, an incentive is needed, how about this. I'll help you find your parents." Judy and Samson were in shock, "What?" they both said in unison. The officer smiled, "I know about your little sob story; I have the resources to help you reunite with them, so what do you say?" The ibex tried to front a tough face, but quickly broke down into tears and ran towards the fox's arms, "Please help me find them, I miss them so much!" Nick comforted the child with a pat on the back, "Its okay, it's the ZPD's mission to help those in need." He shot a wink at the once again surprised doe.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Suggestive themes ahead as a warning, you know... to protect your innocent ideals about Zootopia and all of what it represents for. (*Shakes head*, err...not really.) :p**_

It was dinnertime for the Castillo family, which tonight included Martin's girlfriend as a sort of guest of honor. While Rena dug happily into her fish stew, the deer watched in interest; as though they were observing an insight into the old ways when only 'savage' mammals roamed the land. Martin noticed his family staring at her half the time, and despite the leopardess seeming to ignore them, it led to his own discomfort. Rena finished her bowl much quicker than any of the deer, "Mm! Oh gods, that was so good!" Her boyfriend heard her purr, something that she rarely ever did in front of him at least. Javier himself was elated to see Rena in such a good mood, "I'm glad you enjoyed it! Do you want some more?" Rena nodded, and held a burp back, "Hrm! Aw yeah, another one, please!" The father collected her bowl and walked to the kitchen to refill it. Devin meanwhile looked at her confusedly after witnessing her strong appetite, "Uh wow. I didn't know girls could even eat that much." Martin frowned at him, "Don't talk like that to her!" His mother gasped, "Martin! Calm yourself!" Rena laid a paw on his shoulder, "No, it's okay. I understand where he's coming from. I mean, how old are you, anyways?" Devin gave a friendly smile, "I just turned 11 last week!" She gave an assuring smile towards her boyfriend, "See? He's still too young to understand women." Martin sighed, "I guess, but I still didn't like how he mentioned how you ate like that."

Javier returned with a fresh bowl of stew, "Here you go." Rena gave a thankful grin, "Awesome!" She went right back towards her food; which drawn attention from Javier, "You haven't had fish stew before?" he asked, Rena swallowed a mouthful of stew, and shook her head, "Not really, I mean to be honest, my dad and I don't really have that much money." Javier gave a sympathetic nod, "Are you eating good at least?" Rena shrugged, "Some days are fine, others..." she trailed off remembering the days when they went lean, especially when her father lost jobs more often than not due to discrimination from primarily prey bosses that felt regardless of how well he worked was just another lazy predator. Rena suddenly remembered, "Oh yeah, I need to ask something." Javier looked up from his food, "What is it?" She let out some air, "Can I stay the night?" she asked flatly. Martin's mother was a bit surprised by the question, "Isn't it a school night though?" Martin jumped in, "I'll drive her to school." Rena nodded, "Yeah! I just wanted to know if that's okay with you?" Javier shrugged, "I don't see any trouble with that. But is your father fine with that too?" Rena's tail froze, "Oh um...totally! He said he was fine with it too!" She gave her best fake smile, and it seemed to work after a second of suspicion, "Hmm...okay then, I assume this means that you're sleeping downstairs then?" Martin was confused, "Huh? My bed's large enough for two." Javier gave a little frown, "I know. That's what concerns me." It took a moment for his son to realize the implications, "No dad! I'm not going to try to do...things with her." His mother nodded in agreement with her husband, "Sweetie, your father's right. We can't trust that you two wouldn't get so, you know, attached to each other." Rena blushed, "Guys! I'm sure Martin isn't going to try to do anything to me. And neither am I!" Devin wasn't familiar with the conversation, "Uh, what's going on?" Javier gave a quick smile, "Nothing that concerns you, time to get ready for bed." Devin groaned, "Aw! Its too early!" His mother chuckled, "Sorry Devin, but it is almost time, come on." She got both of their plates, and left with her grumbling son.

With the two gone; it was just Martin, Rena, and Javier at the dinner table. "Now, son, you're almost an adult. I know that even if you think right now nothing's going to happen, later those temptations are going to change your mind." Martin wanted to die of embarrassment, " _Dad_!" Rena giggled, but deep down she was also going through a bout of awkwardness as well. Javier laughed, "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be safe about it then." Rena and Martin froze, and soon the leopardess shook her paws, "It won't be like that!" Martin's father rolled his eyes, "Sure. I'll pretend that two teenagers sharing the same bed are simply going to sleep." Rena was confused, "But wait, are you saying I can stay with him then?" Javier smirked, "I'm not going to be the super strict father that controls his son's life like that. Besides, its not even possible for a deer and a leopard to have children anyways." He got up leaving the couple to sit there by themselves, "Keep it quiet!" Martin sat there, leaving Rena to chuckle trying to break up the strange conversation's effect, "Come on, your dad was just pulling our tails, that's all." The buck sighed, "Guess you're right."

"Here it is." After guiding the leopardess to his door, he looked down, " _Oh boy..."_ he thought as he opened it. Rena took a quick look around; the room was very clean, the opposite of what she was expecting from a teenage male. "Uh wow, does your parents clean it for you or something?" Martin shook his head, "Nope, I just keep it clean; its not that much work honestly." She noticed the small TV on top of an old style drawer, "Do you have any video games?" He shook his head, "Nope. Haven't played since like elementary school, my mom said it would hurt my grades." Rena looked at him sympathetically, "Tough stuff." Martin blushing cleared his throat, "Uh, ahem, you don't mind if I take off my shirt, do you?" Rena shrugged, "I don't care, do what you want, honey." She also had some doubts floating her head, " _Maybe I shouldn't push ourselves too quickly. But then again..."_ She observed as he took off his shirt and revealed fairly developed muscles, and soon looked towards what she considered to be his handsome face, " _Wait, he doesn't even do that much physical stuff!_ _He did that whole shirtless thing on purpose didn't he?_ _Well, the whole 'keeping it clean' just went out the window."_ She thought as creeping lust was enveloping her conscious and decided that tonight was going to be the night. "So, I don't have much to do in my room, I don't really hang out here that much." He commented, the leopardess agreed, "Guess so; its cool though. I mean we got each other, pretty sure that's enough for us anyways." She said while giving him an affectionate hug; while she took a deep sniff, " _Mm...that's that musky deer smell others talk about."_ He gladly returned it, "You're right, we're plenty of fun aren't we?" Rena scoffed, "Maybe not you, considering you seem to like more questionable things." Martin blushed, "Like what?" She grinned, "I looked through your phone when you weren't looking, and according to your browser history; you really get off on felines." The deer gasped and covered his face in embarrassment, "I-Its, just a thing okay? Wait. Why were you on my phone?" Rena laughed and nearly collapsed, "Wow, you're always a hoot to be with. I was just messing with you to see how you react, I'm not going to start breaching your privacy without permission, _or anything else._ " She added with a deeper voice at the end. "I mean, I watch a ton of porn too, its perfectly natural for any teen mammal to indulge themselves." He raised his eyebrow, "Really?" She proudly nodded, "Yep, I mean, girl's got to attend to her own wants too." He sighed in relief, "So, you're not mad at me watching that kind of stuff?" She stroked his back slowly, "Course not. It'd be honestly kind of worrying if you weren't."

One glance at the bed covered with blue sheets and she flung herself onto it immediately feeling a world's difference from her own bed, "Ah...this one's nice." She stretched her entire body out, popping a few joints. She then got up and patted on the bed, "Come on, don't be shy." Martin nervously sat down next to her, unsure at what she was planning, "So..." he was a loss what to say now that his own girlfriend was going to share the bed with him; his own brain went in multiple directions, leading to all sorts of scenarios that he tried to block out, " _Keep it together Martin. She's just here to sleep, that's all."_ He turned and saw her staring at him with a smirk, " _Crap..."_ Rena herself knew that it wouldn't be long before any pretense of morals in his mind would simply give way to something else entirely. She laid on her stomach and her tail lazily swung around in the air, "What's wrong Martin? Don't tell me you're scared." The buck looked away, remaining silent, "I appreciate you trying to be cool about it Martin. But let's cut the bull." She pressed against him and began smooching at his muzzle, "We both know what we want this to happen. I know that deep down the other Martin's just _itching_ to be with me." Her boyfriend was feeling the last remaining resistance disappear, "Rena. We can't, we're both too young for this." She scoffed, "For fox's sake, we're both in high school. Stop pretending that we're just another innocent couple in some kind of sappy movie. We both knew that this was eventually going to happen anyways." She began to rub herself at his back, "Let's _live_ a little _._ " He squeaked, "I don't know..." She purred, "I'm sure were both ready for this. I know you love me, so why are you so unsure about this?" The buck shook his head, "Is this even the right thing to do? I love you for sure, but this is asking a lot...is that your phone?" Rena felt it vibrating in her pocket, "It's probably dad." Suddenly the previous negative feelings swelled back up, and she growled slightly, " _Let's see how he reacts to me having some fun behind his back._ " She ignored his call and wrapped her paws around his chest, "Martin..." The buck yelped as he was forced down into the bed and was straddled by her on his waist, "U-Uh..." The leopardess giggled, "I guess if you're going to be like this." She noticed his expression twitching trying hard to suppress a smile, and she giggled, "What's wrong, cat got your tongue?" He was only staring at her, "I..." She then gasped when she felt something poke her; upon realization that he was getting 'excited' she grinned, "You do want it. I'll help with that." Martin despite his best efforts finally gave in to his inner desires. With a gulp he gave a shy smile, "D-Don't hurt yourself." She crouched down and kissed him on the nose, "I won't."

Nick had his partner and informant bunk into the police cruiser to keep prying eyes or ears from potentially compromising the ibex's position, last thing the fox wanted to be was responsible for a child's murder. "Okay, all we have to work with is there was a mammal that entered Tundra Town and that he matched the description of one of the escaped prisoners." Samson nodded, "Right. Lucky for you guys. I got all kinds of info on this guy." Judy's face glowed in excitement, "Yes!" She whipped out a notepad and carrot shaped pen, "Tell us all you know." The child nodded, "Okay. We'll he's a squirrel, his name is Melvin Jones." Judy quickly wrote it down, "Melvin Jones, he's definitely the guy we're looking for." The fox smirked, "Told you, I know my way around this city." Samson smiled, "He's right." The ibex continued his interview, "Also, he's got a few uh, friends I guess. More like people that he knew, and you know how it is here." Nick nodded, "Any connections you think to Mr. Big?" Samson shook his head, "Not that I know of. The squirrel's a lone wolf, no offense." The fox stuck his tongue out, "None taken; alright so at least we don't have to worry about pissing the boss again." Judy smiled, "But remember I saved his daughter's life, he's not going to just forget that." Nick nodded, "You're right, that's a rare thing to see." Judy gave an annoyed, yet friendly look at him. Samson observed their behaviors, "So are you guys like, going out?" Judy immediately began denying it, "What? No! What makes you think that?" The ibex smiled a little, "You guys fight like an old married couple." Nick rolled his eyes and scoffed, "Please, my worst nightmare's is being tied down to an annoying old hag." Judy punched him on the ribs making him gasp out in pain, "Hmm, old hag's got some punch doesn't she?" Nick held his ribs, "P-Point taken." Samson laughed in response.

After recovering from the devastating blow the fox looked around outside to make sure no one was spying on them, "Anything else you want to add?" The ibex thought on it, "Actually, I heard this from a friend that knew him, and apparently Melvin was looking for someone." The two officers noticed his warning, "Who is he looking for?" The child shrugged, "I dunno know. My friend is the one who told me about it." Nick gave a stern look at him, "Who's your friend?" The ibex nervously looked away, "Well..." The duo were intrigued by his hesitation, "He's actually my _boyfriend_." Again Judy was having difficulty processing all of this at his young age, "A boyfriend? How old are you?" Samson shrugged, "13-ish." Judy gave up, "You know what. I'm not going to bother with the age thing anymore, let's just go with the case." Nick crossed his arms, humored by the entire situation; "Now Judy, we don't judge others by what kind of person they happen to like. I been there too, it can be tough to admit to others about your sort of unorthodox relationships." Judy looked at him confusedly, "Wait...what?" Samson looked at him with disbelief, "You dated guys too?" Nick nonchalantly took another sip of his coffee, "Had a few flings with the _home team_ sort to speak, so I guess." Judy just sat there and paused, "S-So, you...been with other guys?" Nick smirked, "Well. I won't go into details, but let's just say I had some experience with one of Gazelle's backup dancers." Judy gasped, "Really?" The fox nodded, "Yep. I mean, a bunch of tigers in revealing shorts? I'll be damned if not one of them didn't prefer the company of the massive female population that would do anything to be with them." Judy's mind against her will began to create a scene of Nick and one of the dancers being 'intimate'. The bunny shook her head, "Okay, we're really getting off topic now, I would like it if we get back into the case now." Nick put his sunglasses back on chuckling, "Sure. I guess this kind of talk is probably going to have to be over some drinks later anyways."

It was quickly approaching nightfall, and it wouldn't do much good for either of the officers to force themselves into working the night shift. Nick was driving this time; strumming his fingers against the steering wheel meanwhile being busy with making their way back towards the spot that Samson requested to be dropped off at. "Carrots. I'm going to have to drop you home too." The rabbit looked at him, "No! We got to continue with the case! I know with enough information we can catch this criminal, we can't just-" Nick stopped her with showing her his phone's time, "Do you see it? Good. I'm tired. And so is the little guy." Samson was caught off-guard by the comment, "Hey!" Nick ignored him, "I need my beauty sleep, Carrots. All the coffee in the world isn't going to rectify that. Do I make myself clear?" Judy was taken aback, but slowly nodded, "Yeah but-" Again she was interrupted, "No more arguing. If you want to force me to stay awake, its going to take some convincing." She gasped, "Nick!" Her partner grinned, "I didn't mean that _kind_ of convincing, dumb bunny. Not just always so emotional, but so horny as well." She groaned and looked away, "I'm not feeling horny." He grinned, "Oh yeah? Then tell me what that magazine with those _strapping_ male rabbits posing in rather provocative poses was doing on your desk?" Judy just about died from the revealing of that memory, especially with the ibex nearby. "Okay. I won't talk for the rest of the ride then." she simply stated, the fox returned his attention back towards the road with his grin still on his face, "Good bunny."

 _ **Bit of a saucier chapter isn't it? (Don't pretend that it wasn't going to be.) And we're just getting started, so stay tuned for more as we dive into this little case that the our favorite dynamic duo have taken up this time. ;)**_


	10. Chapter 10

_**Yay me! It's my tenth chapter; honestly I didn't think at the beginning of making this fan fic that I was even going to last past 5. But the continued support from all you lovely readers has kept my motivation to continue it. Thanks a bunch!**_

It was still fairly early before sunrise, and two inhabitants of Martin's bed were happily asleep while intertwined with each other, both devoid of clothing that were between them that were strewn across the floor. The snow leopardess had continually purred throughout their 'snuggling' with each other, and most of the night after that. However, beneath her seemingly contented expression; lied a harrowed mind as in her deep sleep, she was going through a rather strange dream.

*Dream Sequence*

Rena found herself sitting at a lobby for some random hospital, unsure on what she was there for. A kangaroo nurse was walking down the hallway, "Uh excuse me. What is going on?" Rena asked, the kangaroo looked at her and showed a mix of surprise and pity, "I'm sorry, I don't have the results yet." The leopardess was confused, "Results? For what?" The kangaroo ignored and continued on walking down; the leopardess looked out the building and it was raining quite hard, "What the hell?" she looked down and saw a gown, before she could even come to terms she heard a familiar voice, "Tough luck. Looks like yet another life was taken by a careless driver." She turned and saw a red fox, "Officer Wilde?" He sighed, "Poor little guy. Didn't even stand a chance." The leopardess was growing frustrated, "Who? Why am I here?" Nick scoffed and jabbed his paw at her arm, "Are you serious? Are you even concerned for him? Your own father is on the floor crying his eyes out, and you're acting like it doesn't bother you at all." She growled, "You can shove that badge up your-" She was interrupted by a tap on her shoulder, turning around revealed an apologetic looking Judy, "He doesn't mean that. It wasn't your fault, we know that. He's just concerned." The rabbit grasped her paw, "We're here for you." Nick gestured down the hall, "Let's go check on him." Rena didn't know what was even happening but decided it would be better to follow them, "Okay."

She was escorted to a white door with the number 430 on it, "Both of them are here. You know what to do." Nick said as he grabbed the handle, Rena nodded. He slowly opened the door, and the revealing of who was inside made her gasp, "Is that-" The mammal on the bed was hooked to many different machines, and half of it's face was covered in bloodied bandages. "It's your brother; are you feeling okay?" Judy noticed the leopardess' legs shake, "K-Kaden?" She heard some choked cries, and on the other side of the bed was her father crying on his son's chest, "I'm so sorry..." he whispered. Some of it felt familiar, but on the bed, Kaden was much older than what she remembered. "Is he..." Judy sighed, "Doesn't look like he's going to make it; the doctors said that the trauma was too great for him to handle." The doe struggled herself to not cry, "We weren't quick enough." Nick held her in a supportive manner, "Please Carrots, don't beat yourself over this, we did all that we could." Rena walked past them and stood over her brother in tears, "Kaden. Please talk to me." She felt a paw grabbed her arm; her father looked up, with his eyes red, "S-Sweetie. I want you to leave. Don't come back." Rena was shocked by his request, "What? Dad, I'm not doing that, you're crazy!" The older leopard growled through his crying, "You're still alive. I can't protect you at all, I couldn't save both of you." Rena looked at both her father and brother, "I'm never going to do that! I still love you, dad! No matter what!" Suddenly a group of doctors and nurses came into the room, "Excuse us, we need all four of you to leave." Nick and Judy nodded, "We understand." The fox said as they left. "Come on, Spots. Let them do what they can." Rena was tugged away from her brother, completely broken inside, " _Wake up_..." a voice echoed in the building.

*End sequence*

She opened her eyes and saw a concerned Martin holding her by the arms, "Rena! Wake up! You're having a nightmare!" She looked around the room, "W-What?" She felt his paw graze right under her eyes, "You're crying." She rubbed her eyes and to her surprise, he was right. The deer held her tightly, "I'm right here." he said softly. The leopardess was huffing, "Oh gods. I messed up." The buck was confused, "Are you okay?" She reached out and felt his bare chest, "Was it all a dream?" He nodded, "It was. You were moving around like you were hurting." She felt him connect their lips together, and for several seconds he gave her a tender kiss, and it did comfort her somewhat. After letting go he checked his phone, "Its still really early." Rena shook out her nightmare and purred, "Hey. Thanks." Martin grinned, "You're very welcome." The leopardess nipped at his neck, "I know it was a bad idea to do it just after eating. I mean, my stomach honestly hurt the entire time." The deer grimaced, "Do you need to throw up or something?" Rena chuckled, "No. The feeling's gone away now." He rubbed her stomach slowly, knowing that certain felines certainly enjoyed the sensation, "I hope we weren't too loud." Rena continued to purr as she felt his paw moved about her stomach, "Does it matter?"

They both continued to stay awake; an accomplishment for the leopardess as in any other situation she would have certainly went right back to sleep, but she decided that it would better to continue to cuddle with her boyfriend. Martin yawned, "I don't about you, but I'm feeling kind of sore." Rena laid her head on his chest, "Me too. Its going to kind of suck when school starts...oh shit." She didn't bring a change of clothes, and now both of herself and her clothes stunk of deer musk. She sighed and reached down into the floor to pick her shirt and underwear, "I got to go home." Martin nodded, "I'll drive you then." She smiled, "Good. Last thing I need is walking down the street smelling like shame and sin." He chuckled, "We both really need a shower." Rena growled seductively, "Too bad we couldn't just share one, huh?" He blushed, "Maybe that's taking it too far for now." She scoffed, "Really? As if getting down with each other while the whole family wasn't too risky for you anyways."

To her annoyance, now her favorite green t-shirt, and basketball shorts were both full of Martin's smell. "Great. Its going to be impossible for dad not to notice." Martin was worried, "Think he'll know?" She nodded, "Leopard have pretty sensitive noses, honestly in the same block of the neighborhood he could put two and two together by smell alone." He gulped, "Uh...are leopards particularly protective of their cubs?" She nervously smiled, "Well, considering that he only has me left; and that some random prey had his way with her. Yeah, he'll probably maim you before you can run away." He put his hands on his hips, "You came onto _me_!" She laid a paw on his shoulder, "Yeah...try explaining that to him." She patted his back and got his brush to at least straighten some of the fur back. "Anyways, he's an early riser, so we'll have to hurry to beat him."

Meanwhile at Nick's apartment, the fox was sleeping on his bed peacefully; feeling content that he had done the right amount of work to be able to keep it relatively easy for the rest of the case. He himself was not at all a early riser, stemming from his species' nocturnal roots, thus he preferred keeping it easy in the morning as to not end up snapping at any mammal who dared to bother him before his mandatory cup o' joe. At least until a certain rabbit hopped into his life, which forcefully ended his going at his own pace lifestyle. Suddenly someone knocked at his door, and with his sensitive hearing it was impossible for the vulpine to even consider ignoring it; he forced his eyes open and gave a low growl, " _I guess someone isn't caring about their own life."_ he thought, he was only in his boxers but wasn't even going to consider dressing up at all for the unwelcome visitor. " _This better be good, or else I'm clawing their face off."_ He grudgingly lifted himself off the comfortable bed, and trudged towards the door, "I'm coming." he whispered out, not caring for the visitor to hear. He looked through the peephole and to his surprise it was his partner, "Judy?" The rabbit smiled, "Hey Nick, I'm really sorry, but I got something important to tell you." Despite their friendship he snarled in annoyance, "Important enough to wake me up at...6?" He said after glancing at the clock. Judy nervously chuckled, "I know you don't like being waken up so early. But this really is important!" He sighed, "Whatever, in this case; you're buying me coffee." Judy nodded, "Deal."

He opened the door, and upon revealing himself, she gasped; "Nick!" she covered her eyes, "You're in your underwear!" The fox smirked, "Come on Carrots. I thought you would be more accepting of nudity after living in the big city for a while." The doe blushed, "I don't want to impede on your modesty!" Nick grinned, "Please. I've been through plenty of situations where modesty does not apply." He shrugged, "Whatever, I'll put some pants on, you can sit at my couch." Judy waited until she was sure that he left and quickly made her way to the living room. After a short while he returned with his a plain white t-shirt and his dark blue police officer slacks, "So...what's so important that you had to come here so early in the morning?" he asked, Judy pulled out a piece of paper, "I've been searching on background information on Melvin, and guess what?" Nick tilted her head at her excitement. "What?" She laid down the paper on the table, and it revealed something that definitely was useful, causing him to resume his grin, "He was involved in an earlier incident with Luther Collins." He was fully awake at this point, "Well, this just made our job a bit easier; I guess there is some good in you being such a party animal, Carrots." The rabbit huffed, "I'm not a party animal!" He went to his room and brought his phone, "Well then. I'll just leave this to your interpretation then." He showed a picture of Judy drinking out of a beer keg, and she gasped, "That's from Wolford's birthday party!" He loomed over the send button menacingly, "Yep. And just a simple send to Furbook will show your family the 'other side' of Judy Hopps." She scowled at him, "You're such a monster!" He smirked, "I know. But you know you love me anyways."

The two officers stopped by at a nearby cafe that interestingly enough catered to rabbits. Judy herself grinned when she saw the sign, " _Can you dig it? Coffee and Cakes."_ She took a quick glance inside, and sure enough the vast majority of the clientele were all sorts of different species of rabbit. However the fox was much more skeptical; "Carrots. Remember how we discussed stereotypes? This is definitely one of those times to be mindful." Judy held his paw causing him to stiffen in surprise, "If they see us being friendly, then it won't be bad, trust me." Nick sighed, but kept a firm grip, "Whatever you say."

They entered the establishment and nearly immediately the patrons noticed the fox intrude into their domain, "What's a _fox_ doing here?" one of them called out, "He's here to eat us! I knew they were up to no good!" A mother collected her kits and held them close, "Don't you dare touch them!" Judy saw Nick's other paw balling into a fist, "I knew this was a bad idea." he began to turn around when a voice yelled out, "Nick?" The fox turned and to his surprise an arctic fox came from the kitchen, "Ben?" The arctic fox's tail swung around wildly, "Oh my goodness! It's you!" The arctic fox went through the door and ran to the red fox to hug him, "It's been too long!" Judy was also surprised by his sudden appearance, "Uh...who's this?" Nick reluctantly hugged him back, "He was my... hangout buddy." Suddenly the doe became interested, "A friend?" Ben chuckled, "You could say that." The other rabbits also observed the two foxes in interest and a degree of disgust, "Now, what brings you here?" Nick shrugged, "Nearest place to get coffee. But it seems that your customers are being quite terrified." Ben looked at them with concern, "Oh, that's because a lot of them are not from Zootopia." Judy was confused, "Not from Zootopia?" Ben shook his head, "Nope. Some of them are not even from this country!" He pointed to a sign, " _International Rabbit Hosting Day! Courtesy of Hannah and Lucas Williamson."_ The arctic fox smiled, "You should meet them! I'm sure that they'll be excited about meeting the first fox and rabbit police officers!" Suddenly murmuring broke out among the rabbit population, "Police officers? That means..." One of them gasped, "It's Judy Hopps!" Suddenly a rush enveloped the female officer, and her senses instantly became overwhelmed, "Hey! I know, its me! Don't touch me! Hey, let go of my belt!" Nick growled loudly bringing all of their attention to him, "Let her go _now."_ he snarled. The appearance of sharp teeth combined with the sound of growling resulted in taking less than a second for all of them to disperse, leaving a grateful Judy standing there, "Thanks so much Nick. Who knows how it would've lead to." Nick's demeanor returned to his usual smugness, "No problemo."

Ben guided the two officers towards the manager's office, "Now I'll warn you now. They are pretty affectionate with each other, and their relationship is a bit unusual. But I'm sure you can handle it." Nick rolled his eyes, "Whatever." The arctic fox knocked on the door, "Lucas! Hannah! I got visitors!" A fairly deep voice bellowed out, "Really? Send them in!" The door opened revealing to not their surprise a brown hare, "Oh! It's the famous Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps, come in, I made some coffee already." Nick grinned, "Cool." The office was pretty spacious and was full of nooks and crannies containing artifacts from around the world, in the center that caught both of their attention was a bear skin. Judy was immediately creeped out, "Ah! I-Is that a-" The hare chuckled, "Oh don't worry, its fake, I just like the faces on mammals whenever they see one." She was put off by his odd sense of humor, "Uh, that's a bit weird." Lucas bowed slightly, "Ah. Sit, sit!" He gestured on two old-fashioned but comfortable looking chairs; he brought out two wooden mugs and poured coffee in both of them, "Don't worry, this is half decaf." He pointed out to Judy, who smiled in appreciation, "Thanks. Rabbits always know to keep it cool with the caffeine." Lucas the other cup towards Nick, "And I'm assuming full strength for yours?" Nick nodded and held up his cup, "You assumed right, chief. Cheers." The hare clapped his paws together, "Oh, and of course, don't forget to mention my lovely wife." On cue she, who was a mongoose, made her inside the office; "Hello! You must be Nick Wilde!" The fox shook paws with her in confusion, "Nice to meet you." He quickly switched glance between the hare and mongoose, " _Hmm...well then, looks like interspecies couples are more common than I thought."_ Judy also shook her paw, "Nice to meet you, Hannah!"

"So you guys are married, huh?" Nick wanted to affirm, Hannah nodded, "For eight years now." The mongoose received a peck from the hare on her cheek, "It'll be our ninth anniversary next month. Thinking of visiting Mt. Furlympus." Lucas stated, he smiled; "Haven't there since my grandfather took me as a kit over there; quite the adventure actually. I'm going to tell my story in front of the store tonight, if you're interested?" Judy shook her head but smiled gratefully, "Oh, we would love to, but we have police duty." Lucas nodded in understanding, "Of course. Can't disturb the work of Zootopia's finest." Ben scooted closer to Nick, "Hey, can we talk...alone." Noticing Judy looking at him. The red fox sighed but nodded, "Yeah."

Out back behind the store, Ben dropped his friendly appearance and brought out a cigar to smoke, after lighting it and taking a puff he sighed, "So. Did you know I worked here?" Nick shook his head, "Complete coincidence, we just dropped by for a cup of coffee before work." The arctic fox snickered, "Really think I would believe that for a second? Are you sure you're not just crawling back?" Nick growled, "Listen. We had a short-lived fling. Five years ago." Ben shrugged and took another puff, "Right. Just thought I was seeing a desperate little fox coming back to daddy." The officer looked away in shame, "Listen, I was needy alright? Finnick wasn't here at the time, and I was jonesing for some of the good stuff okay? That was years ago, and I'm clean now; doesn't the badge say enough?" He said pointing it out. Ben rolled his eyes, "That wasn't what you said when we first met, what was the words? Oh yeah. ' _I'll do anything for a fix, please!'"_ He mocked his pleading words. Nick snarled, "I don't need this bullshit from you. If you excuse me, Judy and I are about to leave." Ben smirked, "Ah, your rabbit. I always suspected that you were a prey chaser, but your own partner?" The red fox resisted the urge to claw his face and went back inside the store.

Nick quickly reentered the building and went immediately for Judy who was caught up in a conversation with the married couple. "Let's go Carrots, it's already almost our shift time." Judy gasped, "Sweet cheese and crackers! I almost forgot; normally that's your job!" Nick gave a flat laugh, "Haha. Thanks for having us, but we have to go." Lucas and Hannah smiled and nodded, "That's fine. We appreciated the company, good luck with your job!" Judy waved bye towards the arctic fox who also reentered, "See you later, Ben!" He waved back, "Come back soon, _both of you_." He emphasized towards the red fox, causing his ears to fold back, "Yeah. See you later, too."

They both plunked into the police cruiser, and quickly Judy noticed the scowling face on Nick, "Nick? Is something wrong?" The red fox caught himself with his glum attitude and switched back into his usual smug smile, "Nothing Carrots. Let's get a move on before the boss tans our hides. We got some more work to do with our little friend." The rabbit held a suspicion towards him but pretended to not have noticed him for now, "Buckle up, partner." She said with a grin as she punched on the gas pedal.

 ** _;)_**


	11. Chapter 11

_**This story has been receiving way more viewers than I thought I was going to get; having a cathartic moment right now. Enjoy this next chapter!**_

The whole trip back from Martin's house to her own was quiet, with a creeping sense of impeding doom for the leopardess. " _This isn't going to be pretty no matter how he's feeling."_ She could only hope that her father wasn't awake and that she could sneak a quick shower and change of clothes before school started. As the deer's car pulled up on the curb she sighed, "This is going to be one hell of a fight if he finds out." she quietly said. He held her paw, "Do you want me to come with you?" Rena shook her head, "No. I can't say for sure that he'll won't try to hurt you, he's got a gun anyways." The deer shuddered a bit, "Yeah, you're probably right then." She gave a quick parting kiss with him, "So. I'll catch you later then." As she got out of the car, all Martin could do was watch with anxiety the fate of his girlfriend.

She waved goodbye to him as he pulled away, and turned towards the front door with a deep breath. " _Okay...he'll won't hurt you, worst case scenario I'll just lock myself in my room."_ She thought trying to calm herself down. She reached down to a potted plant right by the patio and pulled out a spare key, with it she unlocked the door and as silently as possible she opened the door. Upon opening the door, the living room was dark and devoid of anybody in there. She sighed in relief and shut the door quietly, " _Thank the gods."_ She went straight for her room, and upon entering collected fresh clothes to bring to the bathroom. However, as she opened the door again to her horror her father was standing right there with fury on his face. " _Where. Have. You've. Been?"_ he angrily interrogated. She was frozen there, "I-I-I..." Then her father sniffed the air, "I smell something; it's not you." he said in confusion. It took a very short moment to realize the situation, "I know that smell...its deer...you slept with him." He grasped at her wrist forcefully and his body began to shake, "Is this what you wanted? To do this behind my back to spite me?" His daughter felt his grip remain firm but the rest of his body lost strength, with his eyes reddening from the threat of tears coming out, "Was it because I'm a horrible father, who drove his own child away from him?" Rena muttered out a single word, "I..." The rest of the sentence never came to her lips, leaving only a collapsing Luther to continue the conversation, "Was it worth it? To give up yourself to someone you say you love?" She gritted her teeth as anger began to bubble up again, "You're saying that now? Asking me if it was 'worth it'? You say that, while you are doing the same with that wolf you're seeing?" The leopardess also began to cry, "Do you still think I'm a little cub? Its been 10 years, dad! 10 years! And you're still acting like I've been the same age ever since he died. I know you miss him, but trying to hold me close isn't how it works!" She couldn't hold it back and tears began flowing down her fluffy cheeks, "I come back home and you treat me like this? Give me a reason why I shouldn't just run away from this broken house?" Luther slumped down to the floor, still holding on to her wrist, "I-I don't know..." The leopardess tugged her wrist away from his grip, "Maybe I should've gone with Kaden too. He would probably appreciate me being around unlike you." she coldly stated before slamming the door shut.

At the station Samson agreed to meeting Nick and Judy provided he was under basically witness protection. At Nick's desk he slammed down a folder in from the ibex, "Well, seems you've been telling some truth in this case. Carrots had provided additional information into Melvin; turns out he was an associate of someone we've met earlier, one Luther Collins." The ibex shrugged, "No clue who he is. But since Melvin is looking for someone in Zootopia, maybe he is the guy he's looking for?" Judy who sat beside him nodded, "That's what Nick and I guessed; we need to see him before something happens. Samson will have to stay here in case things get hairy." The fox grinned, "Luckily for us, we've got a reference for where he is."

Judy stopped by the blue house, "Here it is; 304 Mariposa Road." Nick popped his neck, "Hope he's still here, it is a Monday morning." The fox wasn't still used completely to being referred at that, "Call me Nick for now." Him and Judy got out of the cruiser, "Think he'll cooperate?" Judy asked, "Well, we helped out his daughter; maybe he'll think good things about us." The rabbit knocked on the door, "Mr. Collins? It's officer Judy Hopps of the ZPD, we would like a word." After there was no response she knocked again, "Mr. Collins?" She pressed her ear against the door and heard faint sobbing, "Sounds like trouble." Nick scratched his head, "So what now? We don't have a warrant against him to bust open the door." She softly knocked the door again, "We know you're in there. We need to talk, its about Melvin." The sobbing stopped, and after a few seconds the door creaked open, "M-Melvin?" Judy smiled and nodded, "We got some questions to ask you, if you kindly please answer them." Luther sniffed, "O-Of course." He opened it fully. Nick winced a bit seeing the leopard completely distraught, "Did we uh...come at a bad time?" Luther shook his head, and offered up a false smile, "No! Everything's fine!" Judy frowned, "It doesn't seem that way. Is your daughter here?" Luther once again shook his head, "She left for school a few minutes ago."

Nick whistled in admiration, "Wow. Looks like someone's rivaling for messiest home with Carrots." The rabbit was about to get into a shouting match with the fox but remembered that they were on duty, "I'll get you later for that, dumb fox." Luther led them to the kitchen, where the two officers noticed a whisky bottle on the table. "Looks like a basket case of a broken home." Nick whispered to his partner, she nodded, "He's in bad shape too. Let's keep it simple shall we?" The snow leopard settled down on the chair, "So. You here about Melvin." he dully asked, seeming to not care at all about the situation. Nick smirked, "Bingo. We know you and him had a talk with each other so to speak." Judy knew that in order to collect needed info, they had to console him first. "Did something happen?" Luther shook his head, "Nothing important." Nick was getting annoyed with his depressed demeanor, "Right. I guess the crying and the whisky doesn't mean anything either? Are you even sober?" Luther looked down, "I'm not sure." Judy grabbed the bottle and put it on the counter, "Sir. It's important that you tell us anything about Melvin." The snow leopard scoffed, "Why should I tell you anything?" The rabbit slammed her paw down, even if didn't create much of a shudder from the table, "There was a prison riot in Clawifornia, he's one of the missing." Luther quickly looked back up, "He escaped?" They nodded. The leopard began to panic, "Great. First with Rena, and now this, just perfect!" he stood up and paced around the kitchen. "What happened with Rena, Mr. Collins?" Judy asked, the father looked a little ashamed "She...I caught her sneaking back in last night." Nick nodded, "Typical teenager stuff. They like to explore their freedoms." The leopard sighed, "She slept with her boyfriend." The fox grimaced, "Oh..." He looked away awkwardly, "Well. I don't know what to say about that."

After a silent moment Judy picked the conversation back up, "We'll make it quick, I'm sure you got work right?" Luther shrugged, "Called in sick; which is half-true." Nick's ears folded down, "You drink away your troubles?" The leopard shook his head, "Not since my son died." Judy put her paw on his, "Kaden wasn't it?" Luther nodded solemnly, "I never bothered with alcohol that much until recently." He pointed towards the whisky bottle that was half empty, "That was supposed to be shared with my own date." He sighed, "But after Rena caught her and I dating. I feel its not going to go anywhere. I might just break up with her." She shook her head, "No! You should keep at it. I know that its hard for children to accept a new parent into their lives, but give her a chance." Nick nodded in agreement, "I haven't seen my dad since I was 8, and my mom is dead. Don't underestimate the powerful emotions that being a parent has." Luther tapped his finger on the table, "I'm sure that being a parent has a definite effect on you. But my daughter said that she would rather be with her brother than me." He made deliberate eye contact with the fox, "Rena's a good girl. But are having difficulties talking to each other, and I feel that has created a distance between us; she's been becoming a rebellious little brat if I'm honest." Judy was sure that the snow leopard was feeling out of it, and she felt that the only way to bring him out of his slump was to show him what could go wrong. "Mr. Collins. We need to pay attention back to the matter in hand. Melvin Jones is a danger to society right now, and I'm sorry to tell you this, but we know you had a history between you two. And who knows what that prisoner is planning right now." Luther rubbed his eyes, "Right. And?" Nick was a bit shocked by his nonchalant behavior, "And? Listen to yourself; not only is your personal well-being in danger right now, but your daughter as well!" The father groaned, "What can I do then? Involve myself in this mess? Worst case scenario I get myself and her killed because you two believe it would be right for me to help you with a mammal that I haven't met in nearly 20 years?" he ranted. Luther took a deep breath, "You know what? I'll help you, if only because I know I'll probably get ratted out by someone anyways at this point." He grabbed his jacket, "Let's go."

Rena took the school bus as usual to Moosevelt High; normally she loved being on the bus because some of her friends were already on, and her bus had a reputation among the populace of her school for being the 'turned up' bus. What that meant was that a porcupine carried his phone along with a wireless speaker that allowed him to play his music out loud, and even the bus driver didn't complain because she secretly enjoyed the tunes that the young porcupine selected on his phone. Rena sat down on a empty seat and lean against the window, thinking back on the past few hours; from spending the night with Martin to fighting his father. Someone sat down next to her, "You okay, Rena?" She recognized the voice but didn't look at him, "I'm fine, Weston." Weston Park, who was a 'Furean' beaver, was what Rena considered to be the most eccentric friend she had. He considered himself a 'destroyer' of stereotypes, preferring to focus his talents not by pursuing a career in construction as his family had done for generations, but to become an artist of sorts; and was also an avid player of a game that Rena herself enjoyed immensely. "Normally at this time we would be talking about the latest raid we did on enemy bases. Or how you slapped that stupid chinchilla who kept bothering you." He said with an interrogative tone. The snow leopardess sighed, "I...had a 'rough' night, sort to speak." She referenced with quotations. Weston scratched his head, "How rough?" The leopardess wasn't sure on how to put it, "I had a 'connection' with Martin." she euphemistically stated. Weston thought on it for a moment and after realizing what she meant he gasped, "You two had sex?" Rena growled and covered his mouth with her paw, "Shh! Yeah, but don't go spreading that story or else I'll have a beaver blanket in my room later, capish?" The beaver nodded in fear.

After arriving at the school campus, they both walked together to class who they shared for the period. Weston yawned, "I hate Monday, the feeling of going back to the oppressive institution designed to crush the individuality of every mammal gets tiring after a while, doesn't it?" Rena shrugged, "I guess; I'm not really feeling school either, more like sleeping in." The beaver chuckled, "You fall asleep in first period all the time, I'm surprised you even pass the class." The leopardess smirked a little, "I have a C-, and the teacher's complained a few times; its not all glamour." Her first class of the day, English, went horribly as she struggled to stay awake even more than usual, and she swore that two female mammals were commenting on her disheveled appearance. " _I know...I can't help it, leave me alone for fox's sake."_ Weston was puzzled at her exhausted expression and was worried that she wouldn't make the day at all. "Rena!" The teacher snapped, the leopardess shook out of her hallucination from lack of sleep, "W-What..huh?" The timber wolf frowned, "This is the third time this month that you completely fell asleep, see me after class." Rena quietly growled, "Fine, Mr. Varg." Weston gasped, "You realize this means you could get detention?" The leopardess huffed, "Like I give a crap."

After class as everyone in the room shuffled out for the next period, Mr. Varg walked towards the leopardess and sat down on a desk next to her, "Rena. This sleeping problem is getting to be a problem; if you don't break out of this funk you may fail the class." She laid her head down on the desk with her arms below her, "I know. I'm sorry." The wolf sighed, "Listen. I know you're a capable student; but you don't apply enough effort." He noticed that even her tail was limp, a common sign that a mammal is heading towards depression, "Did something happen at home?" Rena shot up and began to deny instantly, "Course not! Nothing happened." He didn't believe her bluff, "If something happening at home you need to let me know." She looked away, "So what, you'll call the police on my dad?" Mr. Varg's eyes squinted in suspicion, "Did you father hurt you?" She clenched her paws in frustration, "No! I just..." She sighed, "I stayed with my boyfriend last night because I was mad at my dad, okay? I came back and he yelled at him; I yelled back, and now he's at home crying and drinking because I said I rather be with my brother who's dead than him!" The wolf took a second to process her explanation, "Do you want me to take you to the nurse?" Rena sighed, "You know what? I don't care anymore, do what you want."

"Did you have any physical altercations?" a gerbil nurse asked. Rena shook her head, "No." The nurse smiled softly, "You don't need to feel uncomfortable with me." The leopardess fumed, "I'm fine thank you." She sat on a bed that was provided in the nurse's officer, and laid there pondering what she was going to do now, " _I'm pretty sure when I go home my dad is either going to hit me, or be passed out drunk on the couch. Wow, my life sounds terrible right now."_ She had never felt like her family was 'normal', considering she had only her dad to look to. Even her dad's grandparents passed away and as far she could tell, he never mentioned any siblings. But she never felt Luther was an abusive father at any point in her life, but he was susceptible to lapses of misjudgment that led to difficult scenarios like this. The nurse came back in, "I tried calling your father; both with his home phone and cell phone, but he didn't pick up. We'll just return you to class." Rena smiled a little, "Thanks."

After being let go, she knew something was up because it wasn't like her father to skip on a call. She took out her phone and called him, and it was a surefire way to see if he was even conscious at this point. After a few rings, he did to her surprise pick up, " _Rena?"_ The background sounded like a car in motion, "Dad? Are you driving somewhere, why didn't you answer my school?" She looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping on her, " _Sorry honey. I got caught up in a situation_." Her eyes opened in shock, "Caught up in something?" She heard talking in the background, "Who's that?" A familiar voice arose, " _Hey Rena! It's me, Officer Hopps_!" The leopardess gasped, "What? Did- Did you arrest my dad or something?" The rabbit giggled, " _Not at all, we're just taking him to the station; we need him for something_." Rena rolled her eyes, "It can't be good, huh?" Nick piped in, " _Unfortunately, looks like we got a fickle situation going on, Spots._ " She growled, "I told you to stop calling me that." She checked a clock, still had ten minutes before the next class started, "Why is dad even with you guys?" Nick sighed, " _Well, I don't know how to put this...I'm sure you're old enough to understand, but your dad knew a suspect for a case we're pursuing right now. Doesn't mean he's in any trouble, but he's going to be away for a little bit while we sort this thing out, understand?"_ The leopardess groaned, "So I'm going to be home alone for the day?" The fox laughed a little, " _I thought teenagers loved it when their parents were gone, but yeah; don't worry he'll be fine."_ She frowned a little, "He better be, I'm not exactly in the mood to be in this type of situation." The other side switched back to Luther, " _I'll be back soon, be safe sweetie."_ Rena scoffed, "Whatever, goodbye." After ending the call she smacked her head on the wall, "Are those two knuckleheads ever going to get out of my life?"

 _ **And that's another chapter in the bag. Catch you guys later :)**_


	12. Chapter 12

**_Hey guys! Bit of a shorter chapter than usual for now, mostly because I'm too lazy to multitask between this story and other stuff; but don't worry, I'm not going anywhere under my own motivation (Barring outside factors). Go have fun with this chapter! :)_**

"So..." Judy seemed hesitant to ask Luther something, "How did things between you and your daughter go?" The leopard was confused, "What? How did things go?" The doe nodded, "Did you do the picnic thing? she asked hopefully. She recoiled after hearing a low grumble, "If we did I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have had 'fun' with her boyfriend in the first place." Nick, who was currently the driver remained calm and retained his easygoing demeanor. "Now Mr. Collins. I'm sure Officer Hopps had no intention to offend in any way; since she lived her life as a bumbling carrot farmer she doesn't have the experience to put herself in your paws." Judy crossed her arms, "Hmph, and I suppose the know-it-all city slicker have an idea to bring a dad and daughter back together?" Nick smirked, "Actually, we'll talk about that later."

As soon as they arrived, Judy and Nick escorted Luther towards the front desk. Waiting there on his phone muttering the lyrics to Gazelle's new song while attempting to munch on another donut; "Ahem..." Nick made their presence clear, which startled the cheetah, "Oh Nick! Fancy seeing you here..." He noticed the rough looking snow leopard, with Clawhauser happening to smell the alcohol around him, and immediately feared the worst, "Oh no, please tell me you're not here to be processed!" Judy shook her head, "Fortunately no, he's here to help us on the prison escape case!" The cheetah breathed out and held a paw to his chest, "What a relief! And here I was scared that he was arrested for a domestic disturbance-" Nick gestured to cut the chat by sliding a finger across his throat. Clawhauser caught the message and switched topics immediately to avoid upsetting the snow leopard, "Uh...anyways, looking dapper as always Nick!" The fox loved the morsel that fed his ego, "Why thank you, I've been trying a new shampoo. But we got a case to crack, we'll talk later." Luther yawned, "Let's hurry this up, please."

"Now then." Judy cracked her paws and started typing down her report on Melvin, "Tell us. How did you two meet in the first place?" Luther shrugged, "High school, he was always known as the shifty kind of mammal to hang out with. Lived with a military family." She nodded and typed it down, "Does he know about where you live or your family?" The leopard thought on it, "Maybe, it wouldn't be much of a stretch for him to look up me on the internet and find info on me." Nick, who was munching on a doughnut that he took from Clawhauser's box was in his usual mischievous demeanor, "Was it a 'special' kind of relationship?" Judy glared at him, "Officer Wilde..." she warned, Luther didn't seem to catch the implication, "Uh nothing besides casual relationship I guess." Nick gave a fake disappointed look, "Aw, you're no fun aren't you?"

For a while Judy was a bit lost, "Well. Let's see here..." She flipped throughout her notepad in hopes of evoking any meaningful question; one did come to mind. "Ah! Here we go, apparently you and Melvin got into a fight and were arrested by the Oso del Sol police department, and was charged for assault." Luther glanced away in shame, "I was not a well-behaved mammal back then." Nick shrugged, "It was just a night in jail, you got bailed out by your mother." Judy noticed him sniffing, "Did your mom say anything?" He shook his head, "She just said she was disappointed in me. It doesn't matter, she killed herself a few months after I moved out anyways." He received a pat on his shoulder by the sympathetic fox, "I'm sorry for your loss." The leopard sighed, "It's okay, me and her didn't get along swimmingly. But it looks like it may repeat itself the rate that my daughter and I are separating." Suddenly he felt a strong thwack from the back of the of his head, "Ow! What was that for?" He turned to see a furious looking Nick, "Are you saying that you leave your daughter along in this world like that? What kind of father decides that they're not worth enough to continue living!" Luther was at a loss for words, "I-" Nick shushed him, "No excuses, you said yourself how your own mother committed suicide. And now you implying the same thing can happen to you?" The snow leopard's paws curled into fists, "Then tell me. What am I supposed to do?" The fox was exasperated, "Your the oldest guy in this building, apart from Buffalo Wings, think about how much you've seen in your life. I mean, Rena is still barely entering adulthood, and you moping around isn't going to make her life any easier!" He finished his rant with a deep breath, "I'm going to talk with someone for a moment, stay put with Officer Hopps."

The sight of an frustrated Nick Wilde spooked the entire floor that he occupied; the last time the fox was in a bad mood he snapped at nearly every officer that attempted to strike a conversation with him. However their was one inhabitant in the building in particular that he was looking for, "Fangmeyer." The tiger spun around on his chair, "What's up Nicky-" The fox's rather displeased expression made his tail stop moving around, "Is something wrong?" Nick grunted, "The prison riot case, you have any information on one of the prisoners? Melvin Jones?" Fangmeyer tapped his muzzle thoughtfully, "Let's see." After a minute or so of typing and searching on the computer he found what he was looking for, "Here we go, Melvin Jones, date of birth December 10, location Los Gatos, Clawifornia. Charged with several counts of arson, assault, and burglary." The tiger tsked, "Certainly not one mammal that is mindful of the law." Nick turned around to see if anyone was around and turned back to whisper into the other officer's ear, "Don't tell anyone else, I need you to perform a background check on Luther Collins _."_ The tiger was confused, "Err...isn't that illegal without a search warrant?" The fox smirked, "Well, technically if we receive consent from the subject its perfectly legal." he said looking at the chatting leopard and his partner.

" _Chemistry."_ Rena thought as she approached the door that led inside to the classroom, " _This might get weird."_ Martin was naturally her lab partner as they were in a relationship, but with the aftermath of them being together for the night, it would certainly have bring some changes to how their relationship worked. As she followed a steady stream of students rushing their way inside, she sat down at her usual desk and waited for the teacher to arrive to begin her lecture. " _Where is he?"_ she thought as the beginning of class was moments away, " _Is he embarrassed or something about us? This guy confuses me sometimes."_ He finally arrived at the last second, apologizing quickly to the teacher before promptly sitting next to her. "There you are, what took so long? Did something happen?" Rena inquired the slightly tired buck, "Just got held up on something." he said before reaching for his notebook. The leopardess looked at him suspiciously, "Sure, just something..."

Martin wasn't a public affection type of mammal, limiting his own interaction with Rena to mostly friendly banter or a hug. But now he seemed even less willing to do anything with her, which both annoyed and worried her at the same time, "Dude. You're really starting to make me worry." she said, Martin's tail swished a bit, "It was nothing alright?" he said right at her face with a hint of anger. She took her attention away from the teacher and began to pick at her boyfriend, "Did someone piss you off? I'm not afraid to teach this dick a lesson if you want." Martin smiled a bit but didn't reply. She huffed and turned back to the teacher, "Right. Guess I'll ask later then nerd." Then the buck tapped her shoulder and passed her a note, she took it and read it discretely, " _Meet me at the parking lot after school."_ She tried to decipher what his intention behind the note was, and decided to follow his request.

After the final period was done, she quickly grabbed her backpack and made her way directly to his car instead of catching the bus home. She spotted him standing by his car and he waved at her, "Rena!" She walked to him, "So what's up?" she asked as she stood next to him. Martin sighed, "So my dad found out we slept with each other." She nodded, "Mm-hmm, so? Wasn't he cool with it?" He waved his paw in a so-so manner, "Eh, he asked me if I uh...was being safe. I said no, and he kind of flipped out." Rena shrugged, "You can tell him that you were a perfectly pleasant mammal to be with, and you were being safe and blah blah blah." Martin cleared his throat "Uh that's fine...I have a bit of a hard question to ask you." he said nervously scratching his arm, "Err...what kind of question?" she replied. His face gave a small smile, "About last night." She was getting impatient, "Okay then spit it out." She demanded. "Did your dad notice that we-" Rena groaned, "Oh my gods, are you seriously hung up about this?" She turned around and sighed, "Yeah, he found out. And he was, forgive my little slur, hopping mad." Her fact made him feel guilty, "Did he do anything to you?" She shook her head, "No. Don't think on it too hard anyways, it wouldn't matter if you were a deer, another leopard, or even a mouse. My dad isn't so keen on letting his own daughter have some fun." She cracked her neck, "So anyways; we on for another night together?" Martin was fluttered, "W-What? Aren't you afraid of pissing your dad off again?" She sarcastically chuckled for a moment, "Ha. You think I give a damn about what he thinks? I'm old enough to make my decisions." He gave an unsure expression, "Rena, you're living life a little too much on the edge, isn't getting hurt something that holds you back?" The leopardess groaned, "This again? Tell you what, I'll be the most careful leopard in Zootopia, if we can have a little 'fun' once in a while, okay?" The buck sighed, "Fine. Only if you're more careful." She smirked, "Cool, now then." She whipped out her phone and showed him a picture on Furbook, "It's a party at Tundra Town, one of my friends said it's uh...what she said...lit? Or something like that, I don't know where she learned words like that." Martin frowned at her, "Rena..." She held up her paws in defense, "It's not like that! This party is more like a get together of sorts; for fox's sake the main attraction is video games, nothing sinister here!" He raised an eyebrow, "A party. On a school night." She winked, "It'll be for a few hours, you'll be home before you know it. Come on, let's get a move on!" she commanded as she patted on his car's roof and got inside, Martin shrugged, " _If it will keep her happy."_

 _ **Have a good day/night everyone!**_


	13. Chapter 13

_**Hey! Trying out a new format, similar to the 'sentence by sentence' style that a lot of other writers do here. (Totally experimental by the way...) Let me know how you like it, and suggest anything to help improve this particular style of writing. Thanks a bunch! Happy Reading!**_

"Is this it?" Martin asked his girlfriend as they arrived to a rather worn down looking apartment complex. "Looks a little..." He watched as a mongoose and a possum struggle in a fight as onlookers cheer on.

Rena smiled in joy, "Looks like it, my friend said she's at room 235."

They made there way to the location, walking past various species that were casually partying or hanging out at the venue. "Here comes the party girl!" a female raccoon towards the leopardess.

"What's up, Tiffany?" they gave a quick friendly hug.

"Is this the elusive Martin I've been hearing about?" Tiffany asked as she noticed the buck behind standing her rather awkwardly.

"Yep, the sweetest nerdy deer you'll probably meet in Zootopia." she said, causing him to blush a little; "H-Hey." he said holding up a paw.

"Aw...you're so lucky, my last boyfriend couldn't even bother to be a nice guy." she huffed, "Anyways, how's things been?"

Rena shrugged, "Same old stuff. Well, apart from getting into a fight with my dad, but what can you do?"

"Sounds like you need a drink." Tiffany suggested.

Martin immediately began to object, "What? She's underage, we're all underage!"

"Chill sweetie, I'm not driving anywhere. You don't have to drink anything okay?" she said attempting to console the buck.

"Except the fact that you smelling like booze would draw the cops if they bust this party!" Martin said back.

The leopardess sighed and looked around, noticing that the room's atmosphere was rather laid back apart from some mammals who were fighting each other in a fighting game.

"You wanna play a game with me?" she asked him.

"I don't know, I'm not good at fighting games." He replied with a defeated sounding tone.

"You're like that rare guy who doesn't play video games, but don't worry, I'll be gentle. Like last night." Rena said with a snide grin.

Tiffany caught the sentence's meaning, "Whoa, you two did it with each other?"

Martin groaned, "Could you please stop bringing that up, it's really starting to annoy me."

"I thought males like to brag about their 'conquests', or whatever they call it." The raccoon noted.

"He's a shy one. Careful, he might die of embarrassment if you keep mentioning that." Rena teased.

"So, we playing or what?" She asked the buck.

"Fine..."

The deer knew he was coming into this with no knowledge of the particular fighting game that his girlfriend suggested, but annihilation in front of an audience still crushed him.

"It's okay Martin, I'm sure if this was a battle of who had the better grades in school, the roles would have been switched." Rena said while hugging him.

"Yeah. Sure, can we leave now?" he asked feeling ready to go straight to his room to sulk in bed.

"What? It's been only like 10 minutes, you already trying to leave?" She said nuzzling her muzzle against his cheek.

"Rena. I have homework to do, and I start work in an hour." he stated flatly.

The leopardess was rather disappointed with his glum behavior, and grabbed a cup on the table.

"Well then, I know what gets a party started." She took a chug of whatever was in the cup.

She immediately coughed, "Ugh..." Despite her gun ho attitude, she never was a drinker, and the taste of cheap beer overwhelmed her senses.

"Rena!" Martin patted her back, "Don't start drinking like that, you'll feel sick."

She waved him off, "It's fine. I just-" she took another chug, and just like the last one she couldn't handle the sharp taste of the alcohol.

She continued to grimace, "Okay, maybe I'll stop for now." She released a quick burp, "Sorry, don't know what got into me. I guess I just..."

Martin noticed that she was beginning to shake a little, "What's wrong?"

"I don't know...I guess since the whole fighting thing with my dad I wasn't feeling myself." She buried her face in his neck, "I'm sorry for making you worry like this. I'm not exactly the most stable leopard in Zootopia."

Martin held her, "Don't be sorry, you'll be fine. I'll be there with you."

Rena smiled at him gratefully, "Thanks, glad to know you're still a reliable mammal to be with."

"Rena!" Tiffany yelled out from the kitchen.

The leopardess got up from Martin's embrace and went towards her, "What?"

"There's this weird squirrel that's been asking around for you." She said discretely.

"Really? And how does he know me?"

Tiffany seemed unsure and a little suspicious, "I have like no idea. Its kind of creepy if you ask me. I would stay with your boyfriend."

"Yeah, thanks for looking out for me."

The raccoon looked at the leopardess' eyes, "Have you've been drinking?"

Rena nervously chuckled, "A bit. Not too much obviously, dad would dunk my head in cold water if he saw me coming home drunk."

The raccoon nodded, "Okay, catch you later then."

After Tiffany left the kitchen the leopardess sighed and took a quick glance around the room for any squirrel, but found none.

" _Someone's looking for me? Well considering I was nearly killed by a group of prey earlier, I'm going to play it safe."_

* * *

 _"_ Luther!" Nick yelled to catch the leopard's attention.

"What is it now?" he replied back with a tired tone.

The fox held out a piece of paper with some info on it, "Just need you to sign this really quick."

Judy gasped noticing the form, "Nick! That's-"

The fox gave a quick glare at her that said, " _If you blab, I'll skin you alive, little rabbit."_ Causing the doe to shut her mouth forcefully.

"Uh...okay." Luther grabbed the pen and gave a quick, rather sloppy signature.

Nick grinned and gave a slight bow, "Thank you kindly, sir." he said before turning back towards Fangmeyer.

The red fox felt rather pleases that his little plan went without any hitch, even with Judy nearly ruining the entire ruse.

"Got it, Fangmeyer." He said handing the signed form to the tiger.

"Wow. How did you do it?"

Nick crossed his arms, "The typical 'signing a form you didn't want to read' technique, works like a charm every time." he stated smugly.

"Okay then. I'll turn it in to Clawhauser, and then I'll get to work on the background check."

Nick winked at the tiger, "You da cool cat, Fangmeyer. Call me when you get something."

"Got it."

It wasn't even noon yet at the police compound, and already Nick was preparing for his usual lunch break. "Take five, Carrots. I'm going to grab some grub."

"Nick. It's only 11:00!" she reprimanded.

"But I'm starving! You wouldn't want your favorite fox to die a painful death, would you?"

"We're working on a hot case right now! Our careers are meant to fix these things!" she ranted on.

"I know that! But my dumb bunny, a hungry Nick Wilde is a sad Nick Wilde. And a sad Nick Wilde..." he faked a sad expression, "Doesn't do jack."

The doe rolled her eyes, "Whatever, you big pup."

Nick switched quickly back to his usual smirk, "Perfect. Want anything?"

"A lemon salad?" she suggested.

"Of course, typical bunny food. I'll be back."

Luther meanwhile was practically dozing off in a corner, clearly suffering from a combination of a hangover and lack of sleep.

Judy walked to him and patted his paw, "You okay?"

Luther opened his eyes, and groaned a bit from the hangover, "I guess..."

The rabbit wanted to make things better, "I know things seem down now. But hey, you're already helping us on a big case! You can bring justice to these criminals!"

The leopard snorted, "And? What do I get out of it?"

"A safer Zootopia to raise your daughter?" she said hopefully.

"Sure. Rena's safety is important to me. But that's it, I'm just another faceless mammal working with the police, which isn't the most inspiring thing to me."

Judy smiled at him, "You're not faceless! Your a father, and the fact that you raised her by yourself is inspiring to me."

Luther's face perked up a little, "Really?"

She nodded happily, "I mean, I have hundreds of siblings in my family, and we all help each other out as much we can to make life easier for our parents. But you have only yourself and her, and you made it still work."

"I...never thought of it that way." he remarked thinking back to how much his daughter has grown.

"My point is that you should never give up, you need to get up, dust yourself off, and try again!"

Luther smiled for the first time in a while, "Thanks. I'll keep that in mind."

Judy giggled, "Whatever I can do to help, that's why I joined the ZPD."

Nick came back after a quick trip to a local grocery store, and with him carried the salad that his partner requested.

"Here you go, one lemon salad for the special doe."

Judy happily took the bowl and opened the lid, "Awesome, thanks a lot, Slick."

"Anything for the cutest bunny on the force." he said playfully, which earned a quick frown from the doe.

"I got you something too, Mr. Collins."

Luther was taken aback by the fox's generosity, "Oh, thanks."

It was a small bug sandwich, however Luther gladly took a bite as he was also hungry.

"So anyways, I was talking to Samson and apparently the kid believes that the next best place to go looking for our little fugitive is a gambling den that fronts as a garage." he explained as he took a bite of a blueberry pastry.

"This ibex is proving to be really useful, great job on finding him." Judy said.

"It comes with the territory of roping in a street fox into the force."

"Is our new friend feeling any better now?" Nick asked Luther.

"A little, thanks to a pep talk your partner gave me."

Nick was a little impressed by Judy's ability to bring him out of a slump; he made a guess that her unfailing optimism and friendliness had an effect on the glum snow leopard and nodded, "She's a special case, her happiness rubs off on you after a while."

Judy beamed proudly, "I believe that being a police officer means not only to deliver justice, but to improve the lives of all of the inhabitants of Zootopia!"

Luther haven't seen that much energy in a mammal, though he suspected that being a rabbit had some part in it, "I wish I had your energy, then maybe raising a cranky teenager wouldn't be so tiring."

"Don't worry, one day your daughter will thank you for all the things that you have done for her." Judy said smiling happily.

"I hope you're right."

 _ **Honestly, it was a bit weird at first doing this format; but soon it came a little more naturally. Hope you enjoyed! :)**_


	14. Chapter 14

_**Hope you readers are doing fine; enjoy!**_

Judy, Nick, and Luther hustled to the garage that was specified by Samson; despite his warnings that it was a den of low-key crime and vice, it at least of the surface seemed almost harmless, as the business itself was quite brisk with cars filling the building up and several more of the parking lot waiting for repair. "So it looks like we need to approach this on the low-down, at least we came in our street clothes." Nick noted. Judy nodded in agreement, "Yeah, I doubt the owner of this establishment would be willing to show a couple of cops into their little hiding hole." The rabbit turned to the snow leopard who stood there unsure if it was even a good idea to go inside with the duo, "Should I wait outside?" he asked a bit nervously, "Probably a good idea; heavens know what's going on inside." Judy replied, Luther knew that there was a library in the vicinity, "Well, call me when you're done, I'll be somewhere else." Nick was about to ask him a question but quickly disregarded it. "Got it; don't worry, it will be hopefully a painless investigation."

Luther headed towards the Westlake Library, which inside contained his favorite little bakery to purchase pastries that appealed to the snow leopard. He also visited the library to enter an environment of peace and quiet, which in particular for today was the place that he wanted to be. He searched through the aisles for the right book to occupy himself while the two officers pursued the case. "Let's see...ah!" He took out a fairly thin hardcover book, ' _Through the Electric Forest',_ he happened to enjoy sci-fi books, and he began to read this particular entry a week ago, despite being occupied with other things. He sat down at his favorite plush armchair, and began to start off at the chapter that he was on earlier.

The two officers approached the building pondering what their cover story should be, "Okay, how about we are coming to schedule our car in, and look around the building while we wait for the manager to fill us in?" Judy suggested, "Sure. You'll do the talking then, I'll be snooping around for anything suspicious." Inside the building held several mammals sitting around waiting for their vehicles to be fixed, and the cashier who was a ferret himself seemed a little tired. "Excuse me." the rabbit asked politely. "Waiting time's half an hour, please sign in on this book and wait to be called on." Nick scoffed, "Okay, this is going nowhere." He applied his suave expression, "Listen, we're hear to uh...exchange currency." The ferret suddenly switched from looking tired to looking a little nervous, "Oh...um, the manager would be the guy to talk to about that." Nick grinned, "Appreciate it."

The two were told where to go by the ferret, "I'm guessing 'exchange currency' means gambling eh?" Judy asked the fox, which he nodded in response, "Any place that secretly has a gambling ring is going to have a code of sorts, and this one seemed to work." Judy was a little miffed, "Does this mean you had experience with this?" The fox didn't response to that question, "Anyways, let's see who the manager really is."

Opening the door surprised the both of them, "No one's here." Nick said to Judy. "This doesn't feel right..." Judy muttered and suddenly the door slammed shut behind them, "Oh sweet merciful carrot, we've been setup." The both of them didn't bring any weapon as not to arouse suspicion. "Hey there Judith." A voice rang out from the other of the room, "Wait a minute, I know that voice." A relatively young bunny appeared from behind the desk, "Its been a while." Nick leaned towards his partner, "A friend of yours?" Judy shook her head, "He's one of my brothers. He ran away a long time ago, and I never heard from him again." The buck nodded, "Yeah. Its pretty awkward that we met under these circumstances." He looked towards the fox with some surprise on his face, "You're Nick Wilde." The fox remained still and ready for anything to happen, "Yes it is, and you are?" Judy's brother regained some composure, "Scott. Scott Mason Hopps. Call me Scotty." Nick held a chuckle, "Well Scotty, you're the manager here?" The buck sighed, "Well, that's my official title. Since you two are the law, I assume you know what's actually going on here?" Judy wasn't sure what to do now, especially upon learning that the so called 'manager' of the gambling den was her long lost younger brother. "Why haven't you called mom or dad?" she inquired, Scotty's ears fell a little, "You're kidding me right? I dabble in criminal activities for goodness' sake, my own sister is a sort of celebrity cop! I have no interest in reuniting with my family." Nick felt some sympathy but still had to stay true to his job, "I'm sorry about what you ended up in, but you know what has to happen." Scotty nodded, "You're right." He clapped his paws together, and suddenly a panda bear and a bull walked into the room. "You know where to put them."

Nick and Judy found themselves chained by pawcuffs to a pipe, which was located in the basement of the building. "Well...so much for a family reunion." Nick lamented, "Oh hush, how was I suppose to know that my brother; who I haven't seen in years, would be working in a gambling ring?" The red fox rolled his eyes, "Whatever. So buttercup, any ideas on how to get out of this little situation?" The rabbit huffed, "I'm trying to think of one." She looked around, and there wasn't much to see except for the door that led out to the basement, but was on top of a flight of stairs. Then she thought of something, "I think I know what to do. But you're not going to enjoy this." He shrugged, "Can't be any worse than being in a dark, damp basement, Carrots." The doe nervously smiled, "We'll wait for someone to enter the room, and I'll try to persuade them to release us." Nick raised a eyebrow, "Persuade them? This I got to see..."

Scott nervously tapped his foot on the floor while he looked out of a window, "Is she really your sister, boss?" The panda asked, he nodded quickly, "Yep. This is causing more trouble than it should have." He faced a perilous dilemma, either get his goons to 'remove' them from his sights, or release his sister and most definitely get arrested in a sting by the ZPD, potentially sending the buck to jail for a long time. "Terrance, check on them." The panda nodded, "Yes, boss."

The panda opened the door, and saw that the both of them were still sitting there, looking rather tired and depressed looking. He made his way down the steps, "Scotty said to check you guys." Nick scoffed, "How considerate of the little guy." The panda frowned, "Hey! He's actually a pretty cool dude when you get to know him. Its just you two are cops, and we can't risk the whole operation because of you." Judy gave a quick affirmative glance and nod towards the fox, and smirked at the panda, "Well, that's too bad, because...I have a thing for panda bears." Both Nick and Terrance's eyes popped wide open, "What?!" They yelled in unison. Judy chuckled and made fluttery eyes towards Terrance, "Yeah. And well, since I'm stuck here anyways with just him." Nick rolled his eyes, "Yeah. Just a stupid fox." The doe's smirk became more mischievous, "I wouldn't mind having some _company_ from a big, strong bear." Nick could see her tactic but wasn't sure that it going to work. However in a just a few seconds Terrance switched from shock to being flirty, "Oh well, you're in luck, because I don't see anything wrong with being with a rabbit." Nick wanted to laugh seeing how stupid the panda was but held it in and pretended to still be in shock. "Do you know a place that we can be alone?" Judy suggested, "Y-Yeah, there's a storage room." The panda grabbed his keys and unlocked her pawcuff. She continued to smile and grabbed his paw, "Great, now then..." Suddenly she hopped high in the air and delivered a swift kick to the panda's face, instantly knocking him out. "Hmph. Like a rabbit could even be with someone that big." The fox in a mixture of disbelief and relief stared at her, "Wow. Didn't think that would actually work." Judy grabbed the keys and removed the pawcuffs from his wrists, "Well, after dealing with a few bucks that aren't familiar with personal space, I learned its pretty easy to seduce males under the right circumstances." Nick chuckled, "Guess you're right on that."

Scott sat in his chair twiddling his thumbs, "What's taking that dumb panda so long, I said just to check up on them." He heard footsteps approaching and turned around to meet them, "Took you long enough-" He then saw the two officers smiling at him smugly, "Oh cheese and crackers..." He swiftly hopped out from his chair and made a run for it, unfortunately for him his sister was superior to him physically from the arduous training that she received from the academy. The doe jumped on his back and knocked him forcefully to the ground. He desperately squirmed trying to release himself from her grip but to no avail, "See Carrots? You chase after another rabbit and it took you only five seconds." Nick said referencing her chase with Rena. "Oh can it, hot shot. Let's bring him to the station." Scott sighed in defeat, "Well, guess I'm out of the rat race."

 _ **:)**_


	15. Chapter 15

"Martin, we need to split, like now." Rena quickly called out to the buck. "Great. Because I'm already going to be late for work." Martin huffed, and grabbed his keys, "Your house is along the route I need to get home anyways, I'll drop you off." The snow leopardess nodded, "Yea, actually give me a sec." She quickly texted her father a quick message, " _I'll be at home waiting for you."_ She debated whether or not to inform him about the potential stalker that her friend warned her about. She quickly went through her options, and sighed, " _Something's up, so I'm going to stay inside for now."_ She sent the message and joined Martin as he walking to his car.

Luther was enjoying the relaxing time that he was receiving from being in the library; soon his phone buzzed in his pocket, "Must be the two. Hope they got something." He placed the book on a return cart and swiftly left the establishment as to not disturb the other visitors. "What's up? Got something?" Judy was the one who responded, " _Well, we got a mammal that's probably connected to this case, but uh..."_ Luther was a little confused by her hesitation, "But what?" Judy gave a nervous chuckle, " _Turned out he's my brother."_ Luther rolled his eyes, "Go figure, I mean your family must be huge enough to be found on every corner of the city and the country." Judy was at some loss of words for his blatant prejudice but decided against reprimanding the leopard, " _Just...wait at the same spot we split up at."_ Luther nodded, "Got it." As the leopard was about to put away his phone he received a text message from his daughter, after reading the contents he immediately because worried that something bad was going to happen and hurried to the officers.

Nick overheard the conversation and was admittedly somewhat angered by Luther's seeming ignorance towards rabbits, "Carrots. Ignore him, he's probably not that familiar with rabbits anyways, he'll learn soon enough." Scott was also offended by the leopard's rather callous remarks about his species, "Is this guy serious? And I thought Zootopians were peace loving, tolerant members of society!" Judy shrugged, "Well, more tolerant than most other cities and towns, but its not really a given." The two officers placed Judy's brother inside the cruiser in handcuffs, she frowned, "I'm going to give him a talk about this." Nick's ears laid flat against his head, "That may not be a good idea right now Carrots. We don't even know if he's intentionally being specist or not." The doe tapped her foot, "Society cannot overcome discrimination if we don't learn about each other." Nick nodded, "True. But he's still probably more concerned about his daughter than being 'politically correct'." The fox was worried that a conflict might arise between Judy and Luther; and with one being an officer and the other a civilian, it wouldn't end well.

"There you are, so you caught a suspect?" Luther said to the two as he met them at the car. Judy remained stoic, "Yeah. Turned out the head honcho of this operation was Carrot's brother, small world we live in huh?" Nick explained with a smile. The leopard shrugged, "Well, Officer Hopps is the only bunny on the force. I imagine it would be easier for them to pursue a life of crime, huh?" Judy gritted her teeth, "Luther. May we have a word about your ideas about rabbits?" Nick felt he shouldn't be involved in this little tussle, "I'll be in the car." Luther crossed his arms, "What about them?" The doe stood tall, "Your ideas about my species are not correct, and it is honestly becoming a problem." The leopard scoffed, "Listen, it's not my fault that when a boy and girl rabbit get together they have countless litters of bunnies running around, causing havoc and leading to overpopulation." He said dismissively. Judy clenched her fists, even now it seemed that mammals still had a long way to go before they could fully understand each other, "Can you even listen to yourself? Why do you have such a problem with us? What did we do to make you dislike us so much?" Luther growled, "Because, your 'kind' is what killed my son!" he spat out. Judy froze, "W-What?" The leopard took a deep breath, "Did I ever tell you why my son died?" Judy shook her head, "The other driver was a rabbit, a drunk one. And he survived that crash." He shook a little, "I met him at the hospital. And when I went inside his room he looked at me, he had this disgusted look on his face. He said, ' _Who let this pussy in? You should scamper back into the jungle, Spots.'_ And that's despite me being a cold-weather mammal, he never even tried to apologize." he explained. "Most rabbits I've met look at me like I'm going to hunt them and their families down. Even when I walk with my daughter they look at us like we are predators that only came to kill; either they fear me or hate me." Judy was demoralized by her own species' behavior towards him, "Luther, I-I..." The leopard shook his head, "I don't need your half-hearted apology. It doesn't make all the pain of being considered a savage go away. And it never will." He got inside the car and sat down next to a slightly terrified Scott as Judy meanwhile stood outside in disarray.

"Martin, slow down, you're making me feel sick." Rena complained as she held onto the handle inside the car, "I'll be late for work if I don't hurry up!" They made it to her house, with Rena holding her stomach in discomfort, "Ugh, I haven't felt this sick since this morning..." Martin caught the sentence, and froze in utter horror, "Sick this morning? Oh please don't be-" Rena smiled mischievously and laughed loudly, "Oh wow! You actually felt for that? Have you even took Biology yet? We already learned earlier that we can't have kids! You're such a sucker for these things, Martin!" The buck was annoyed at her charade, "Do you know how scared I was? For that one second I thought you seriously were suggesting that you might have been..." Rena forced herself to stop laughing, "Martin, unless you're secretly another leopard underneath that deer body, you can't possibly get me pregnant! That's the beauty, we can do it as many times as we want and nothing will happen? By the way, that's for driving like a maniac." She kissed him on the cheek and exited the car, "I'll see you later!" Martin sat there and grumbled as he left her house, "Yeah. I'll see you later too."

Whenever Rena was alone at her house she normally lazed around in the living room, munching on snacks while watching TV or playing video games. But right now, she felt tense from the warning that Tiffany gave her earlier at the party that someone was looking for her, and with the recent events of being chased and nearly hunted down by a group of vicious prey, the leopardess decided to play it safe and seek refuge in the safest place she knew. "Now let's see if the Real Housewives of Zootopia Hills is on..." She was a sucker for reality shows, if only because she enjoyed the fights that broke out every so often between the cast, and occasionally glue her attention to the most attractive male of the show. " _Every time I leave the house to go shopping downtown this bitch Jasmine has the guts to try to seduce Charles into her bed!"_ A female zebra ranted in a confessional, it immediately switched over to a smirking vixen on a couch, " _Not my fault Charles can't resist the best looking arctic vixen in Zootopia, she needs to calm down and dunk her head in some cold water."_ Rena watched with joy as she watched the vixen and Charles, who was a kangaroo make smooches to each other, only for the vixen to be caught by the zebra, " _You whore!"_ Rena rooted on her couch as the two traded insults and made swipes at each other with a distressed Charles watching from behind. "Get her, Jasmine!"

Suddenly the door emitted a loud knocking noise, which caused the leopardess to have mini heart attack, and stood still in fear for a moment before recomposing herself. "W-Who is it?" She slowly shuffled towards the door, "Is that you dad?" The lack of a response only further drove her fearfulness, "I'll call the cops on you!" Whoever knocked on the door didn't seem to respond as there was no further knocking, she grabbed the door handle and bristled, then she remembered something and ran towards her father's room, she dived underneath his bed and sure enough laid a case containing the gun he used for intruders. She memorized the numbers from watching Luther opening it, and sure enough the combination worked. The weight of the pistol was heavier than she expected, and the realization of the ability to end someone's life was also weighing on her. She never felt the need to use a gun in the first place, and considering the very strict laws concerning use of firearms in Zootopia, down to absolute self-defense, she knew that if she shot someone it would lead to ugly legal repercussions later.

She returned with the pistol in paw, and grabbed the handle, "I'm armed! Don't think I'll won't use it!" She swung open the door and pointed the gun straight out. After a few seconds of scanning for any intruders she put the gun down and sighed, "God, I'm sick of this whole stupid thing." Shen then noticed something on the ground, and upon picking it up realized it was a note, opening it up she read through the contents, " _To my dear friend Luther Collins, I hope you've been well. Seems that you decided to raise a family, good for you. Anyways, I'm here to 'talk' about past association, and I'm looking forward to showing you how I feel about your actions that led me to prison. Don't worry, if all goes well, your daughter will be safe and sound. But unfortunately, I can't guarantee the same for you, old pal. I'll find you when I need to. Love, an old friend."_ Rena grasped the note, "This is definitely not a good sign."

 _ **Had more fun writing this chapter than I should have. But whatever right? :)**_


	16. Chapter 16

Another hard day's work left the fox a bit weary, "Its a bit of a favor to ask, but I feel like taking the day off tomorrow." Nick said while he reclined back on a seat in a break room of sorts at the precinct, Judy looked at him with confusion, "What? We're in the middle of a case!" The fox nodded, "I know! I just am not feeling like doing intensive work tomorrow." Judy had to venture a guess into why her partner was asking strange lately, "Okay. Crazy guess here, but I'm going to assume you are 'seeing' someone?" she intuitively questioned. Nick was a bit surprised by her correct guess but tried to hide it, "You know me, Carrots, I got _other_ friends." The rabbit was taken aback by his choice of words, "Ain't I your friend?" she asked with a little hurt in her voice, Nick immediately regretted uttering the phrase, "Well, y-yeah, of course. Your my favorite bunny." Judy sighed, "I'm the only bunny you know." Nick smirked, "Well, negating a casual encounter with a buck from across the pond..." He happily reminisced the rather fun night out he had, "That rabbit was quite the savage in bed, funny how it fit his name." Judy once again was in disbelief with his disregard for keeping his escapades to himself. "I told you to stop telling me things like that!" she warned, "Pff...you're only mad because I get more tail than you do." He said dismissively, leaving the doe only to internally scream in frustration as she grabbed her ears.

At this point the fox's attitude was even more abrasive to her than usual, which both worried and angered her. "Okay, just calm down Judy, I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation behind his weird behavior." she muttered to herself. Suddenly red furred arms wrapped her shoulder causing her to gasp, "Nick! What are-" His paw shushed her, "Shh..." He chuckled a little, "Did I ever tell you I like soft fur?" He quietly whispered to her ear, the rabbit only sputtered, "W-What..." The fox laid his chin on her head, "It'll be so easy to show you what I really feel about you right now." Judy was frozen in shock, "How you feel? B-But..." She then felt his arm slowly move down from her shoulder, "Don't worry, its just a friendly hug, Carrots." She sighed, "Nick Wilde. You let me go in five seconds or I'll yell out as loud as I can that you're sexually harassing me." The fox quickly let go, "There. No harm done, sensitive bunny." Judy was in a flurry of emotions from that one simple action he took, "What in sweet carrot's name are you up to, Nick?" He grinned, "Just showing some love to my favorite bunny..." He paused, and continued to grin, "Friendly love." Judy wasn't sure on how to respond, "F-Friendly love? Nick. If you do anything like that again, I'll break your neck." The fox shrugged, "Sure, and I'll eat you in a single gulp. By the way, your tail was rubbing against my pants, so thanks for that." Judy grimaced, "Ugh, whatever."

The bunny cop decided that it would be preferable to stay away from the 'affectionate' fox, which only served to creep her out more than usual. She eventually returned back to her cramped apartment and grabbed her phone to call her parents using the Muzzletime app. "Hello?" her mother's voice rang out, "Hey Mom." The elder doe gasp in surprise, "Hon! Its Judy!" Suddenly several voices broke out in excitement, "Judy! Are you doing fine? Did you meet a nice buck? When are you coming back?" Many questions arose from her family, but were immediately silenced by her father's bellowing shout, "Quiet! Your sister is on the phone." Judy smiled a little, "Its good to hear everyone's doing fine." Her mother smiled, "Of course dear. So anything happened lately?" she asked. Judy bit her lip, "Actually...I found Scott." The other side of the call went entirely silent for a second before her father spoke out, "Scott? Scott Mason Hopps?" His daughter nodded, "Yeah. And he's...in jail." Bonnie was in shock, "But, he ran away years ago! Why is he in jail?" Judy sighed, "Its a long story, Mom. I just wanted to let you know." Stu was a little suspicious, "Wait you said you found him, doesn't that mean you arrested him?" The doe knew what her father was going to say, "Well yeah but-" Stu shook his head, "But nothing! Why would you arrest your own brother?" Her ears flopped down, "Its not like I had a choice! Nick and I were doing our job!" Her father still had a disapproved look on his face, "I want to talk to Scott." The doe shook her head, "I can't do that! I don't have permission from the station to just let Scott out of the cell." Bonnie grunted in frustration, "Hmph...then we'll come instead." Judy began to panic a little, "What? No! Its not a good time for you guys to visit right now." Her father crossed his arms, "I'm sorry sweetie, but he's our son, and its our decision to see him, whether you like it or not. We'll be there tomorrow." Judy groaned, "Mom, talk him out of it, please." Bonnie apologetically shook her head, "You know how your father is, he's as stubborn as a city cat when he wants to do something. We'll see you in Zootopia later, goodbye sweetheart." Judy hung her head in defeat, "Bye." she said before hanging up.

Nick also returned home, and sat on his bed reflecting back on his advance on his partner rather regretfully, "What the hell was I thinking? She isn't the kind of bunny to be approached like that...or is she?" He remembered her reaction wasn't complete rejection, but rather confusion, evidenced by her stiffness and her tail twitching all over his hips, that particular sensation made him smile, "Does it make me a bad fox to want to sleep with her?" He thought on it and grabbed his phone, "Better ask him about it." After several rings the other side picked up, "W-What...what the hell do you want?" a deep voice bellowed out, "Sounding as charming as ever, Finnick." He smirked, "Whatever, what is it now?" the smaller fox asked annoyed. "Well, do you remember Carrots, the little rabbit officer?" Finnick chuckled for a second, "Haha, oh I remember, little junior officer." Nick grunted, "Hey, I'm an actual police officer now, show some respect." Finnick snorted, "Sure, I'll respect you with my bat, anyways, what about the rabbit?" The red fox thought on it for a second, "Now, you know me Finnick, I'm the type of fox to have some 'fun' with other animals I happen to like, but that was mostly just strangers that I never really knew." He glanced at a photo in a frame of him and Judy posing over a tranquilized rhino, "But she's my partner, and having...well basically casual sex sounds weird to me for some reason." The other fox was a bit confused, "Uh what? Just bang her until her ears fall out, I don't see how this is questionable." Nick sighed, "I know, but she's been getting to me, whether she realizes it or not; it's not healthy for me to keep restraining myself, because I'm afraid-" He trailed off, "Afraid of what?" Finnick inquired now interested. "That I might force her into things she doesn't want." the smaller fox was in a bit of shock, "Force? That doesn't sound like the Nick I know." The red fox clenched his paw for a second, "I know, I'm honestly kind of scared of myself, being the big, bad predator chasing after some helpless prey." Finnick was now concerned for his buddy, though he hid it well, "I don't know what to say, except that if you do something to her I'll chase after you and bring your worthless ass down." Nick chuckled, "Thanks, glad to know someone cares about me in this cold, heartless city."

 _ **Bit of a short chapter, but I've been busy lately, so it'll have to do. :)**_


	17. Chapter 17

**_Something, something I'm too damn lazy or busy or whatever to write. :)_**

" _Dad? It's me, something weird is happening here...I'm really scared right now. Could you come back please? I'm sorry for running out on you earlier, I just want you here again."_ The message that Luther's phone received from Rena struck some fear into him, now that he acquired the knowledge that a criminal that escaped from prison was now after him and possibly his daughter. He stood at a store collecting some groceries for food later, and was alone in the aisle trembling slightly as anxiety and fear ate into his stomach. He sighed and after grabbing the last bit of food he quickly paced over to the checkout counter and after paying for the merchandise went straight for his car.

Rena herself sat in a corner of the house, wracked with paranoia and fear she held the gun in her paws, using her heightened predator senses; something that most in Zootopia wouldn't normally choose to use outside of emergencies. On a conscious level she could feel the 'savage' side of her mind slowly creeping out, and it had the effect of feeding into her tenseness of her body. She remained at full alert, ready to wack anyone who dared to enter her domain. Suddenly her sharp hearing picked up on the sound of a car pulling into the driveway and she growled slightly; she slowly stood up and firmly gripped the pistol's handle. The car's door opened and then was closed with a slam, which caused her to jump a little. Soon the sounds of pads making contact with the cement came closer to the door, and she held her breath as the unknown possible assailant entering the house; " _Okay...okay..."_ she braced herself. The door cracked open, and Rena applied additional pressure to the trigger. "Rena?" Luther spoke out, Rena gasped and released the trigger from her grasp, "D-Dad?" Luther walked in and witnessed the sight of his frightened daughter standing there with his own gun pointed at him, "Rena...put the gun down, now." She did as told and dropped the gun to the floor. Luther slowly walked towards her, he could see her stuck in survival mode, and like their ancestors from long ago, she was ready to lash out to protect herself. "It's me, everything will be alright." She flinched a little, but also began to relax a little, "Dad. Is he coming?" Luther sighed, "I don't know, but if he does...I'll take care of it." He said mentioning the gun.

The two snow leopards sat at the dining table, "Who's this old friend, Dad?" Luther sighed, "His name is Melvin, a squirrel. He was sent to prison 16 years for arson, assault, and defiance of the law. He's a criminal, a dangerous one at that. And at one time, I called him my friend." Rena sat there taking this all in, "Are you saying we're screwed?" Her father shook his head, "No. Of course not, I'm not letting anyone get near us and harm you." He wrapped his arms around her, "I'm so sorry that I brought him into your life like this. I promised you that I will get him out, in any way possible." Rena shook a little in fear, "I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier, I'm sorry for everything that I did." Luther shushed, "Shh, it's okay. You're safe here, we'll figure this out together okay?" Rena nodded her head, and sniffed, "I love you, Dad." Luther inadvertently purred hearing her say that, causing her to chuckle, "Dad, you're purring." Luther sputtered in embarrassment, "Y-Yeah, sorry about that." Rena laid her head on his shoulder, "Its alright." she said smiling a little.

It wasn't Nick's day, first his commute from his apartment to the precinct; which was typically a short one, was interrupted by a hostile group of teenage prey, who apparently believed it would be a good idea to badger and harass a random street fox. However one quick flash of his badge made them quickly scamper in fear of being arrested, although not without several profane words and rude gestures thrown at him regardless of what occupation the fox was in. He quickly returned to his normal routine of walking down the streets, hoping that the little incident was a isolated one; but it seemed today, more than any other day was going to be the one that would really test his own patience. "Hello there, Officer Wilde." Nick turned and saw a vixen smiling at him, "Morning, ma'am, is there any problem?" She shrugged, "Yeah, you're the problem." Nick tilted his head, "Excuse me?" The vixen's tail fluttered, "Come on now, you're the first police officer whose a fox, and I find that...very attractive." Nick didn't show it but he felt some intrigue, "Really? That's nice to hear, but I got to go right now, police work to be done." The vixen faked a disappointed face, "Aw...but Officer Wilde...are you sure you have to?" He was confused at this point, "Uh, yeah, it's something I have to do." She approached him, "I can make it worth your while, stud." The Nick before he became a officer would have instantly taken the opportunity of a willing vixen offering some fun, but now he was a lot more hesitant. "Look, I'll be honest, I would love to take you out into the alley and do many things to you right now, but I have an obligation to this city to fulfill; it definitely is more important to me than seeking cheap thrills with a nice lady like you." The vixen sighed, "Whatever, you're still coming with me whether you like it or not." Nick frowned, "I told you-" he yipped as he felt a sharp pain on his arm, "Ah! What the f-" he then felt very sleepy and collapsed onto the ground. "Too bad, this could've been great for the both of us." she muttered as she dragged him down into the alley.

Judy sat at the front steps of the precinct, taking a quick glance at her phone and sighing, "Great. Another tardy by the notorious Nick Wilde." The rabbit was becoming less and less tolerant each time the fox decided to take the slip; she was already concerned by his erratic behavior. "Ugh...if he skipped out to sleep in I'm going to...to." She groaned, "I don't know what to do with that idiot." Her mind wandered to various times that the two shared together, such as doing karaoke together at a bar nearby the precinct. "Judy?" She snapped out of her thoughts when her name was uttered, "Yeah?" she recognized the voice as Clawhauser's, "I haven't Nick anywhere, he hasn't called in sick either, I'm worried something happened to him." Judy moped around on the ground, "I don't know...he's probably either sleeping or doing heavens knows what." Clawhauser huffed, "I can cover for you while you go to his house." The doe honestly wasn't feeling the effort to go to his apartment and potentially wake him up, but she cared for him too much to just let him stay there. "Fine, I'll go get his lazy butt." Clawhauser smiled sweetly, "Aw, she cares for him after all!" She scoffed, "Like he cares enough to come here."

Nick woke up swiftly and with a throbbing headache he groaned out in pain, "My head...what the hell..." He looked around and upon realizing his was back in his home he sighed, "What a weird dream." He went to rub his eyes but felt his paws pulled back to the bed, "Huh?" He looked to himself handcuffed to the bed, and soon the memory of the vixen instantly came back to him. "H-Hey! I know you're here somewhere! Come out!" The vixen popped up from ahead of his bed, "Morning, Officer Wilde." Nick growled, "Can it, Missy. Why are you in my house, and why am I cuffed to the bed?" She chuckled, "I don't know, I thought cops like that sort of stuff?" She jumped onto the bed and crawled on top of him, "So...here's the thing, I need some info." She pulled out her purse and grabbed a notepad and a pen, "Can you tell me where Luther Collins lives?" The fox instantly became suspicious of her intentions to find where the snow leopard lived, "Him? I don't know, I only met him once okay?" The vixen continued to smile, "I know that you're not going to give it up so easily, so..." She began to unbutton her shirt, "Can I try to persuade you?" Nick growled again but found himself staring at her chest, "I'm not telling you anything, so stop trying to convince me otherwise." She undid all of the buttons and swiftly took off her shirt, Nick noticed immediately that she wasn't wearing a bra, "Are you sure?" The fox gulped, "N-No, I said-" she silenced him with her paw, "Come on, can this big, bad fox take care of a vixen?" he whined a little, " _Damn it body, just for once can you control yourself over a hot vixen like her?"_ He stuttered, "I'm not telling you shit..." he felt strange under the blanket, "Where are my clothes?" She giggled, "You don't need them sweetie, just me." Suddenly his door swung wide open, "NICHOLAS PIBERIUS WILDE!" Judy boomed, Nick froze in fear, " _Oh fuck..._ " The doe noticed the half nude vixen sitting right on top of him, "What the hell is going on?" she said in shock. The vixen turned and stuck her tongue out, "Beat it, bunny. Officer Wilde and I are just having a nice little talk." Nick shook his head, "Carrots, this isn't what it looks like!" The rabbit took in the sight of the two on the bed in fury and drawn her own conclusion before Nick could even begin to explain, "Oh I see, you decided that nailing this _bitch_ is more important than serving your city!" Nick flinched at Judy's profanity, "N-No, it's not that." he whimpered. The vixen grinned, "Sorry little rabbit, but I'm the one who's treating him right, now scram back to your little burrow." Tears began to flow out of her eyes, "Okay, fine. I'll leave, have fun with her, Mr. Wilde!" she yelled out as she turned around quickly and took off away from the two. Leaving only Nick to lay there in disbelief, "Judy..."


	18. Chapter 18

**_Alright, another chapter to help with your day!_**

Normally, when Judy was under stress or anger, she would turn to a book or talk to family to help relieve the negative feelings. However this time, she went straight for her worst friend, and best enemy. After her shift ended, she went straight home and immediately reached for the moonshine bottle she kept hidden in her closet since the last time she visited her hometown; she grabbed a cup, but later tossed it aside and took a swig directly from the bottle. She blenched, gagged, and coughed from the intensity of the liquid, but went straight for another. For being a small, female rabbit, she could hold her own better than most other rabbits she knew; but she preferred typically not to test herself on her ability, but now she had no qualms about restricting herself. After her third swig she already felt her body begin to feel lighter, and tears began to flow out of her eyes; she shuddered a little and look towards the wall, " _Am I unattractive? Does he think I'm just another stupid, little bunny?"_ A sober Judy would her smacked those thoughts out of her head for being so demeaning, but in her current state, there was nothing to restrict herself from giving into sadness. " _You ate my wrap again didn't you!"_ Bucky, her neighbor yelled out, " _What? Why would I eat your stinking wrap?"_ Pronk, his roommate yelled back. Judy gritted her teeth, "How about you both shut the hell up right now, before I'll do it myself!" she yelled to her neighbors back while banging on the walls. " _Are you drunk? You're slurring a lot right now, did that fox hurt you?"_ Pronk called out in concern, " _Dude shut up, its not our business to pry into their relationship!"_ Judy shuddered in pain hearing 'relationship', "I'm fine, I'm going to sleep." she replied as she laid down on the mattress. " _Its only 6 right now, are you sure you're alright?"_ Judy sniffed, "I'm peachy! Good Night!" The noises from across the walls died down, presumably because her neighbors decided to respect her need for alone time. The doe laid on the bed, contemplating her life choices, from leaving her home to pursue a career of an officer on the ZPD, to meeting Nick, who would become arguably the closest mammal she knew; only for it to be all tossed aside with her partner deciding rather to chase some tail than being a officer. " _What am I going to say at the precinct tomorrow, I can't just assume that everything will be back to normal after today. And with that case with the squirrel and those snow leopards..."_ She groaned and covered her face with the pillow, "I need to find something to relax with soon."

Rena sat at the couch in the living room, idly watching a drama on the TV while her father was busy making calls to the police station to provide more information about Melvin. The younger leopard was pretty miffed about not being allowed to leave the house without him; even with knowing the dangers of being out alone, "Come on Dad; can't we at least go eat somewhere, I'm sick of being stuck at home with nothing to do except lay around and go to school." Luther shook his head, "No. I'm not going to even entertain the idea of letting my only child out without any protection." Rena groaned, "Yeah...that sort of already happened." she said under her breath, "What was that?" her father inquired hearing her mutter. "Nothing. So um...you told me that you met those two officers that I met earlier; we're they cool with you?" Luther was confused, "Cool with me? What do you mean?" Rena shrugged, "You know, did you tell her off at her?" Her father was surprised, "Well uh..." Rena turned to him, "Dad, I know you have a problem with rabbits; but you can't just assume they are all bad!" The elder leopard was somewhat embarrassed, "I-I know, I just..." Like a little cub he stood there with a guilty expression on his face, "I might have said to Officer Hopps some negative remarks about her species." Rena smacked her face, "Oh my...you could've just kept your dumb mouth shut, but had to be a dick to her huh?" At this moment she didn't found it pleasant to be around her backwards dad. "I'm going to my room." She said as she got up from the couch leaving Luther to stand there, still feeling guilty.

"Did you hear? Scotty was captured by the ZPD...yep, apparently by his own sister, funny how that turned out for him." Nick watched in seething anger as the vixen casually moved about in his room on the phone, "I've got Nick Wilde at his house...no I didn't sleep with him, he wasn't willing to." She tapped her foot on the floor and sighed a little, "Okay, I'll do it for you daddy, love you too." She hung up and placed the phone in her pocket, "Well, looks like you got two options right now; one is you going to have to either tell me where Luther is, or I'll have to do unpleasant things." Nick tilted his head, "What kind of unpleasant things?" The vixen playfully winked at him, "I'll show you..." she walked out of the room, and it the distance Nick heard her rummage in the kitchen, and as she walked back into the room to his horror she was brandishing his sharpest knife he had in there. "W-What are you doing?" he said slightly cowering in fear, "Look, tell me where he lives or I'll cut the most important thing to a male off." It didn't take any time for the fox to figure what she meant and soon fear and panick overtook him entirely, "What? Get the hell away from you crazy-" The vixen growled a little, "First, my name's Alice alright; I've been called a crazy bitch enough times already, and second; its a last resort. I'm serious when I said earlier that I thought you were attractive which lucky for you never happened to me before until now."

She laid the knife on the table nearby Nick and sat on the bed, "So, be a sweetie and please tell me?" she said in a polite tone. The fox snarled at her, "And risk those him and his daughter being killed? Don't make laugh." Alice froze right there, "Did you say he had a daughter?" The officer grumbled, "Yeah, I suppose you don't care." She began to shake a little, "I-I'm...oh god." Alice reached into her pocket and grabbed a key, "What am I doing, what kind of mammal am I?" She unlocked his cuff to the bed; as soon as he was free he shot up from the bed and pinned her down to the floor in fury, "Who do you work for?" Alice was now the one who was frozen in fear, "I can't tell..." He bared his fangs in her face, "Bullshit! Tell me or I'll _make_ you talk." Alice wasn't used to being interrogated and broke her cool quickly, "O-Okay, its Melvin, he sent me to find you and give up where Luther is right now." Nick became aware of how frighten she was and backed off the intimidation somewhat, "I'm calling Judy. You stay here." Alice nodded, "Okay." He slowly got up, making sure to not left her escape, and to his surprise she complied and remained on the floor. "You don't need to keeping lying there." Alice grinned nervously and chuckled, "Oh yeah, don't mind me, I'll sit here then." Her awkward movements and cheeky demeanor was definitely off putting for the officer considering how she acted just moments ago, but he decided to disregard it for the time being and dialed his partner's number.

By the time that Judy's phone rang, she was already dozing off into a deep slumber, but the abrupt interruption by the phone made her groan loudly and without opening her eyes she fumbled around the floor looking for it, upon her paw making contact she tapped on the screen, "Hello?" she uttered drowsily. "Carrots, I know you're really mad at me right now, but that vixen you saw with me, she works with that squirrel we were looking for!" Judy's nose twitched in irritation, "You slept with her to get information out of her? That's sick Mr. Wilde." The fox shook his head, "No! I didn't do anything with her, _she_ came onto me!" The rabbit was disgusted with his explanation, "I'll see you tomorrow at the station then, and you can bring _her_ along for the ride." She then hung up on him.

The cold tone left him speechless, and he put down his phone; "I think...we're done." Alice's ears perked up in interest, "Done? Like as a couple?" Nick turned to her and once again growled at her in anger, "Thanks to you she won't ever want to see me again!" he hustled to the bathroom and closed the door. Alice sat there feeling entirely guilty for breaking apart a relationship, and began to tear up a little, "I'm a total monster, he was right." She sighed, she looked out the window and saw something peculiar, a van was parked right by the street, and in it a rather frustrated looking little fennec fox sat in the driver's seat tapping on his phone. She looked nervously at the bathroom door, not wanting to suffer the wrath of the officer, but it seemed that the fennec was waiting right outside for someone. She quickly looked around hoping to find something to defend herself with just in case, and after swiping a vase from the table she opened the door halfway to peek around; the fennec spotted her face and smirked, "Oh, I see Nick's got a visitor. Tell him I'm here."

Nick sat on the toilet, with the lid down of course; and twiddled his thumbs thinking on what to do next, " _Let's see, Carrots is angry at me, and probably doesn't even want to see me right now; that strange vixen...no Alice, she's working for that squirrel."_ He whined a little in frustration, "Why is my life always has to be so difficult." A tap on the door snapped him out of his thoughts, "Nick...there's a uh...fennec outside waiting for you." Nick groaned, "Great, let him in." Alice did as instructed and opened the door, where the fennec stood right outside the van. "Uh...come in?" she said a bit unsure what to do. He gave a sarcastic grin, "I'm a guest of honor here, I'm always welcome."

"So sweetheart, what's your name?" The fennec asked, "Alice. Alice Foxtrot. And you?" she held a paw politely, he returned the gesture with a firm shake, "Finnick, a good friend of your bedfellow." Alice was about to object to his words but Nick opened the bathroom door, "Finnick, what's up? Something wrong?" The smaller fox shrugged, "Just wanted to hang out. And mooch on your food." Nick groaned, "I know you're struggling after we stopped working together, but it doesn't mean you're entitled to my food." Finnick gave a gruff laugh, "Should've thought of that before you joined the force." Alice stood there awkwardly, knowing that she still had to pry information out of Nick, but with the recent events; she became as unsure as she did in her life. "So Nicky, who's this fine vix?" Nick would've explained everything to his friend, but felt that trying to do that in front of the vixen would only make things worse. "She's just someone who was stopping by." He stated rather coldly, and gestured towards the door, "And she was just leaving." Alice saw that Nick wasn't willing to escalate things right now, and was begrudgingly offering a way out of the situation. "Y-Yeah, I was just leaving." Finnick sat down on the couch, "Cold, Nick. Kicking this poor little lady to the streets." Alice huffed, "I have a home." She walked out the front door, and gave a rather friendly smile towards the officer, "Bye Nick, I'll see you later." she added a bit ominously in the end. Nick frowned, "Yeah, see you too, Alice."


	19. Chapter 19

_**Alright, so I've decided to switch formatting to the sentence by sentence structure; I feel that it would be easier to read; plus I've feel that the character dialogues should have more focus in this story, so it will be like this from now on. :) Happy Reading!**_

"So, how was she?" Finnick inquired, while taking a bite of out an apple.

"Don't bring up that topic, I don't want to talk about it." Nick replied with irritation, he sat down on the couch and leaned his head back, "Carrots is furious at me, because she caught Alice and me on the bed, and she thought we were-"

Finnick tilted his head, "So you didn't screw her?"

Nick glared at him, "No! What kind of fox do you think I am?"

The fennec smirked, "I don't know, why don't you tell me, considering before you had no issue with sleeping around."

Nick glanced out the window, "Shit. I still need to go to work and explain why I'm late. I hope she would at least listen to what actually happened."

Finnick threw away the apple core and stood up, with a rare act of sympathy he sat next to his friend and patted his back, "Hey, I know things are really rough now, but you can't let one misunderstanding make you end up like a broken fox; remember that you said yourself to not let them get to you."

Nick nodded, "You're right." He took a deep breath and stood up, popping his joints and grabbed his keys, "I've still got some work to do first. I need to tell Judy was happened and finish this case once and for all."

The fennec gave a sarcastic chuckle, "Heh, you've become more hard headed ever since you joined the force huh?"

* * *

Rena laid down on her bed, having dimmed the lights and closed the curtains, her room was nearly pitch black. She didn't even have her laptop or video game consoles on, just her phone.

" _I should call Martin, to tell him I'm doing fine."_ she thought reaching for it.

However, upon dialing, and letting it ring several times, it went straight to voicemail, " _Hey, sorry I couldn't my phone, I'll try to call you back as soon as I can."_ his voice from the recorded message said.

" _Guess he's busy right now. Whatever, I'll just go to sleep then_." She thought putting her phone on her bed. Glancing out the window, showing a warm sunset her thoughts floated towards what her father was going through right now. " _Poor Dad, he's going through some tough stuff right now, maybe I shouldn't rail on him so much."_

The clouds in the sky suggested rain would fall soon, so she knew that outdoor activities are out as she hated being drenched; a typical feline trait shared among her species.

Her thoughts soon arrived rather wistfully to her boyfriend, whom she reminisced quite happily the fun times she had, but for now it seemed that it wasn't an option to go see him; with her father properly paranoid, the audacity to drag Martin into this situation was of course to much for the snow leopard to even consider.

Whenever the snow leopardess laid in her bed, without the distraction of electronics, her mind drifted into her subconscious thoughts; some of which were tucked away for years, only to suddenly float back. Her brother was one such thought, her memories were faint, but she did know what he looked like, how he talked, and his typical brother-sister rivalry they had.

* * *

 _"Dad, Kaden's trying to bite me again!" Rena yelled to her father, "She started it first! I didn't even bite you, I nipped you!" Kaden yelled back._

 _Luther stood there trying not to growl or snap at either of his cubs, but whenever the two came into conflict the elder leopard wasn't afraid to strike fear into his children, knowing that if he was too lenient on them, they would risk growing up to be troublesome later on._

 _"Shut it. Both of you. I have told you many times already not to bite each other, you're not prey; you're predators, and you'll grow up to be good ones, hear?"_

 _"Yes, Dad." they both said at the same time._

 _At the time, Luther was well aware that a previous protest by the predator population for equality that had left Zootopia in a less stable state than usual. The hysteria conjured up by the prey population had already left a rash of discrimination and prejudice to crop up. And with the threat of a hostile prey especially with an election soon starting, Luther knew that his cubs needed to learn how to be 'proper'._

 _School would soon start for the cubs, and they were to attend a kindergarten that was majority prey; which Luther selected to make sure they would both learn how to live among prey. He made sure also to intermingle with prey with his children to show that there was no misunderstandings to be made. And it seemed to his relief Rena at least seemed perfectly content with talking to prey, but Kaden still had a tendency to look at them like they would be a good snack._

 _"I don't see why I have to dress like this..." Rena mumbled as her father made her wear a flowery dress. "Its ladylike, trust me, when you're older you'll understand." Kaden chuckled, "Rena's wearing a dress!" She growled a little, "Shut up! I'll make you wear a dress!" she retorted while she was blushing in embarrassment._

 _However, soon Luther changed his mind; and soon dropped the strict part of his parenting, and only focused on the caring part._

 _"Dad, can I please stop wearing dresses now? I feel so stupid in them!" Rena complained._

 _"Of course sweetheart, I'll won't make you do things you don't want to do alright?" He gave her a tight hug, "I love you."_

 _Rena happily returned the hug, "I love you too, Dad!" she said, not noticing the tears flowing down his face._

By the time that memory ended, Rena was fast asleep on the bed.

* * *

"OFFICER WILDE, YOU BETTER HAVE A DAMN GOOD EXPLANATION FOR YOUR SECOND TARDINESS!" Bogo boomed in his office.

Nick sat down to the chair, pinned from the force that the buffalo's voice had delivered onto his diminutive body; he cleared his throat, "Well Chief, I've collected some new information on the case regarding the prison outbreak."

Bogo released some of his temper, but remained terse, "Explain then."

Nick sighed, "I'll be blunt officer, you can smell it can't you?"

The buffalo took a whiff and instantly recognized the smell, "You've been with a vixen? Officer Wilde, I trust that you have a _very_ good explanation for this."

The fox nodded, "Her name is Alice, she works for Melvin, sir."

Bogo raised an eyebrow, "You didn't sleep with her just to get info, did you?"

Nick frowned and waved his paws in denial, "No! I'm not _that_ kind of fox, she drugged me and handcuffed me onto my own bed."

"You do realize that we can bring up sexual assault charges?" The buffalo stated.

"For the sake of simplicity I'm going to pass up on those charges; and for the record nothing sexual happened, nada." he emphasized.

The buffalo huffed, "Good, I don't like the idea of a ZPD officer becoming a tail chaser."

"Uh yeah. Anyways, Alice tried to force me to give up the location of Luther Collins, but she then decided to give up on that." He rolled his eyes, "She was kind of crazy, honestly."

"In this case, since we have Scott in our pen, why don't you give him a talk, see if he knows anything?" Bogo suggested.

"Good idea, I'll get right on it." Nick agreed with a curt nod, "I'll make the little fella talk alright." he added with a toothy grin.

* * *

Nick made a few quick calls, and soon Scott found himself inside a interrogation room. The buck sat there a little afraid, but masked it with anger instead.

"Scott Mason Hopps. Birthplace is Bunnyburrow, and I'll be; 19 years old, still a bunny." Nick teased.

"Don't call me that, fox." Scott spat out.

"Feisty aren't you? Just like your sister. But luckily I know little punks like you crack really fast." the officer stated before sitting down across from Scott.

"I'm not telling you crap. I know my rights." Scott simply said.

Nick nodded, "That's fine, its totally under your discretion. But just to let you know, you have multiple charges of drug trafficking, along with kidnapping of officers, and also...a parking ticket." he pointed out.

The buck already began to lose confidence, "So what, I'm not scared of you; cops can't hurt suspects legally!"

"You're right on that, but..." He tilted his head towards the part of the building with the cells, "I'm pretty sure in prison its a pred eat prey world out there."

Scott gulped, "S-So, I can handle myself." His nose and tail twitched in anxiety.

"You say that but your own sister literally jumped and slammed you to the ground; I could rip you into shreds if I so desired." Nick pointed out showing off his sharp fangs.

The buck froze seeing those threatening fangs, "I-I..." The rabbit then yelled out in frustration and slammed his head on the table.

For a minute there was tense silence between the two before the fox broke it up, "Calm down; I'll get this started then. First of all, how does such a young bun-...rabbit gain control of a crime den?" The fox questioned with interest.

"I ran it from the start myself. What else?" Scott quickly said.

Nick nodded, "A fellow entrepreneur huh? I trust that you're taxes are in order." he said with a smirk.

The buck froze in shock, and shook his head, "Taxes? You're kidding me right?"

The fox shrugged, "Tax evasion is a federal crime, kid."

Scott swore under his breath, "Someone told me to run operations for now."

The fox gave a mischievous smile, "Ah, now this is interesting; from who?"

The buck looked away and muttered, " _Melvin..."_

Nick's ears perked up, "Speak up, I couldn't hear the name."

"Melvin! Melvin Jones!" Scott blurted out in anger.

"Perfect, we've got something to go with. Next, tell me how you met." Nick questioned feeling content with the rabbit.

"I left Bunnyburrows right after my 15th birthday; the thought of marrying a doe and having hundreds of kids made me sick to my stomach; so I hightailed it out of that cesspool breeding ground I used to call home." He explained with some disgust.

"Weird, considering most male rabbits I've met were happy to start right around your age, but I guess not everyone's the same. Also, harsh words for a place my partner also called home." The fox pointed out.

"I came to Zootopia with the clothes on my back, and for weeks I struggled to even get any food from others. Eventually I turned to the crime scene to make decent money to at least survive, and for years I was just another errand boy for anyone who offered me money; I did some bad things that I looked back with regret."

Nick sat there feeling with a little guilt, seeing how this turned an otherwise farm bunny into a criminal; Zootopia did had a tendency to tempt its inhabitants into a life of crime, if only because other opportunities didn't arise.

"So then; how does this come to you meeting Melvin?"

Scott fidgeted a little, "I was just hanging out at my friend's apartment, we live together sort of. My friend told me that someone was looking for someone else to run an 'establishment' for him for a while."

The buck sighed, "Anyways, it was Melvin; he said he escaped from prison, and with the help of some associates in Zootopia was getting together some things to uh...meet an old friend, sounded pretty scary coming from him; but I said yes as he offered me a good chunk of change."

"Sounds cool, how much?" Nick inquired.

"Enough for me, that's I'll say." Scott replied flatly.

"Fair enough. Okay, now unfortunately you got no chance in the justice system, we've got a _lot_ of charges against you currently."

"Can I speak to a lawyer now? This is getting too aggressive for my taste." Scott complained.

"Sure, I'll let you be on your way."

Before the fox got up the rabbit suddenly remembered, "Wait!" Nick stopped and looked at him with some interest, "What is it?"

"...Can I talk to my sister?" Scott nervously spoke out.

"Uh, I don't know if she would be able to right now." He replied remembering the rather unsavory conversation the two had earlier.

"You can't just throw me in prison without at least letting me see her!" Scott cried out.

Nick groaned, "Kid, you're giving me a headache...fine, I'll talk to her to see if she can see you."

The fox left the room and retrieved his cell phone from his pocket, "This is going to be fun."

* * *

Judy at this point had released most of her bad mood and was psyching herself up for police duty, "Whew, okay..." She took a deep breath and forced a smile on her face, "I'll show that dumb fox who's the better officer! He can fool around with other women, but he'll never bring this awesome bunny down!" she yelled out.

She then covered her mouth quickly, feeling somewhat embarrassed at her sudden outburst. She removed her sleeping clothes and quickly put together her police uniform.

As she was about to leave the room her phone began to buzz on the table; she instinctively reached for it and a quick glance confirmed her worst fear, "Oh great..."

Her brain delved into a quick debate before reaching the conclusion to answer it, "Hello Mr. Wilde." she answered coldly.

"Carrots, your brother wants to talk to you, in person." Nick explained.

"What? Isn't he already in jail?" Judy questioned.

"No, I still needed to talk to him for more info on the guy we're trying to catch."

Judy sighed, "Fine. Put him on."

Nick returned into the interrogation room and handed Scott the phone, "You've got a few minutes."

Scott nodded and nervously put the phone to his ear, "J-Judy?"

"Scott, what do you want?" His sister asked a little annoyed.

"I just wanted to say that I'm so sorry! And I miss being with you and the rest of the family, I screwed up majorly! Please get me out of here!" The buck begged, leaving Nick to snort in disbelief.

Judy also wasn't easily moved, "Scott. You can't claim to be innocent, we already have plenty of evidence against you. Plus, you obviously don't care enough about the family to stay out of trouble."

"I know...Judy I had no money, no food, I was freezing to death at one point! What the hell was I suppose to do? Starve to death?" he cried into the phone.

Nick was close to intervening as this conversation wasn't going anywhere, but he held himself back, if only to peep into Scott's life.

"Okay look, you're my brother, and I can see that life in Zootopia can get...difficult. But trust me, getting into a life of crime only ends in disaster." Judysaid attempting to console her brother.

"She's right you know." Nick pointed out.

Scott began to tear up a little, "Fine, I'll go to jail, will that make you happy? So much for family." He said before tossing the phone on the table, "I'm done."

Nick grabbed the phone, "I guess that its then, I'll see you at the bullpen, Officer Hopps."

Judy felt pretty distraught, "Yeah, I'll see you then." She said before she hung up.

* * *

"Did ya hear? Scotty's been caught. And Alice gone AWOL." a deep female voice said.

"Course, leave it to two young twerps to screw everything up." a male voice replied, he then sighed, "Fine, let's just get this moving already."

 _ **I'm ready for the Summer, anyone else? (Unless you're from the Southern Hemisphere, in which case, happy Winter!) :)**_


End file.
